Although the Polish opposition parties publicly assured their unity on the important vote, the centrist party Poland 2050 broke out of the arrangement at the last minute and voted differently, a bad sign for the opposition’s unity just months before the parliamentary elections.
Poland has yet to receive money from the EU’s Reconstruction Fund. In order for Brussels to finally start sending money to Warsaw, it has to meet the Commission’s conditions regarding, among other things, the state of the Polish courts and the national rule of law.
For a long time, Poland has been in the process of creating successive judicial reform projects, which are supposed to result in unblocking funds for Poland.
Leaders of the opposition parties assured that the entire opposition would abstain from voting on the Supreme Court Reform Project. Opposition leaders asserted that Poland needs money from the EU and therefore would not stand in the way of EU funding with their votes.
The plan was for unity and abstention, but the centrists from Poland 2050 broke out of the unofficial pact and eventually voted against the bill, explaining that the “Law and Justice party cannot be trusted.”
The party leader, Szymon Holownia, was said to have tried to convince other opposition leaders to vote ‘against’.
Opposition colleagues were left feeling bitter. “This is inexcusable. [Holownia – ed.] is unbelievable. He has closed down the idea of a joint electoral list,” one politician from the opposition Civic Coalition told the Gazeta Wyborcza.
This is one of the more serious disputes in the ranks of the Polish opposition, all the more evident shortly before the start of the campaigning for the parliamentary elections.
It remains to be seen how the behaviour of Holownia and his MPs will affect the mood in the opposition and the plan for a joint electoral list, which has long been announced by some opposition leaders. However, the project is quite controversial and is often criticised on social media. According to polls, the united opposition is likely to win in the upcoming elections to the Polish parliament, but it may win the most seats with the option of separate electoral lists.
The bill on the Supreme Court passed through the lower house of the Parliament, despite the opposition of seven MPs from Poland 2050, the far-right Confederation and the Eurosceptic Solidarna Polska, which is in the government.
(Bartosz Sieniawski | EURACTIV.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
