Law and Justice MEP resigns from party
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
03.01.2017 13:16
Kazimierz Ujazdowski, a Polish member of the European Parliament, has resigned from his membership of the country’s governing Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Kazimierz Ujazdowski resigned from PiS on Tuesday. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński
In a blog post published on Tuesday, Ujazdowski wrote that the “strategy adopted by PiS leadership following the [October 2015 general election] made it impossible to implement the objectives” declared by the party.
“Instead of increasing, the potential of Poland is often focused on ongoing, unnecessary conflicts,” he added.
Ujazdowski has in recent weeks been a vocal opponent of some of the decisions by the party, particularly the simmering political crisis which has seen opposition MPs staging a sit-in protest inside the parliament since 16 December.
The resignation came amid a media controversy over a foreign trip made by Ryszard Petru, the head of the protesting Nowoczesna party with fellow MP Joanna Schmidt. The two politicians were photographed on a plane headed to Portugal on new year's eve.
The party has said that the trip was work-related, but many on social media have criticised the flight made after opposition MPs have vowed to occupy the parliament hall until 11 January.
In a tweet on Tuesday, PiS MP Iwona Arent wrote: “Did Ujazdowski agree the moment to leave PiS with [Nowoczesna’s] Petru? And in this way cover Petru’s ‘busines trip’ with a female colleague?” (rg)