Polish opposition has plan to remove incumbent PM from power via president's help – Gazeta Wyborcza

Poland's Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice or PiS) party faction, which went into opposition after eight years in power, expects to be able to remove recently appointed Prime Minister Donald Tusk from power with the help of President Andrzej Duda and the Constitutional Tribunal that they have been in control of.

Source: European Pravda, citing an article by Gazeta Wyborcza, Polish nationwide daily newspaper

Details: The newspaper reported that the more right-wing PiS branch, chaired by leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, expects Tusk to override Polish President Andrzej Duda's veto of budget amendments that would allocate PLN 3 billion (roughly US$764 million) to state broadcasters as part of a relevant reform.

In order to do this, Tusk will introduce the corresponding amendments to the budget law (currently set out in a separate bill), following which the president will send them to the Constitutional Tribunal, where most of the members were appointed during the PiS's term. The tribunal must issue a decision within two months of the submission.

According to the Polish constitution, the adopted budget law must be submitted to the president within four months after the draft is introduced, otherwise he can decide to dissolve the parliament. The previous PiS government of Mateusz Morawiecki submitted the draft budget for next year on 29 September, so Duda is supposed to receive the draft budget by 29 January.

"Hardliners in the Law and Justice party are demanding that Duda use scorched earth tactics," Gazeta Wyborcza reported, citing PiS sources.

On the other hand, a situation may theoretically arise where the tribunal recognises the budget bill as unconstitutional, which has never happened in Poland before, and the law provisions did not foresee it.

Background: Last week, Polish President Andrzej Duda decided to veto the budget bill, which provides for the allocation of PLN 3 billion for the country's state media next year.

Last week, Poland's new Minister of Culture, Bartołomiej Sienkiewicz, dismissed the leadership of Polish Television, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency. The new Polish government claims that the state media has became too politicised during the rule of its predecessors from the PiS party. The change in the leadership of the state media sparked protests from the now-opposition PiS party.

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