Party leaders to meet amid parliamentary crisis
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
09.01.2017 10:21
The leaders of Poland’s major parties will meet on Monday to discuss ways of solving a political crisis that has gripped the country since mid-December.
The lower house of Polish parliament. Photo: Lukas Plewnia
Speaking to journalists ahead of the meeting, the Speaker of the upper house, Stanisław Karczewski, said that the crisis needs to be solved in an “amicable way”.
Opposition MPs have been staging a sit-in protest in the plenary hall of the parliament since 16 December over a disputed vote on the 2017 budget bill.
“The current political and parliamentary crisis, the MPs’ strike…, we want to solve these crises in an amicable way, meaning we want both sides of the conflict to take a step back,” Karczeski said, adding that this is “possible”.
The Civic Platform and Nowoczesna opposition parties have said they will occupy the plenary hall until the vote is repeated, but the governing Law and Justice party insists there were no irregularities in the vote, which was held in an ancillary hall with little to no media presence. (rg)