The government should stop violating the law on several issues, President Andrzej Duda told Prime Minister Donald Tusk during a meeting at the Presidential Palace, commenting on the actions of Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and other members of Tusk’s government.
The president referred to the latest issue of two ex-ministers in the Law and Justice party (PiS, ECR) that has ruled in Poland until last month. Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik were arrested for abuse of power in their previous posts and then sentenced to two years in prison. They were also deprived of their MP mandates.
Duda, who considered the punishment illegal, granted both men a pardon. Even if, according to the president’s office, it was Tusk who asked for a meeting on Monday, the president used the opportunity to complain about the actions of Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and other members of Tusk’s government.
“I appealed to the prime minister to restore the situation by the law. What we are observing is cause for concern,” he said, quoted by his office.
He added his position is clear: Tusk’s government should “stop trying to violate the law,” as “any actions in this regard are legally ineffective.”
Duda expressed his opposition to the policy of the Tusk-led cabinet that replaced PiS in power several times.
On Kamiński and Wąsik, Duda called Bodnar to implement the president’s pardon and release the men from arrest. Furthermore, according to the president, they should get their parliamentary seats back.
He called it “a fundamental and humanitarian issue, a matter of decency, but above all, a matter of law and social order.”
Interviewed by TVN24 private broadcaster, Bodnar said his ministry would reconsider Kamiński and Wąsik’s case in the near future.
However, he doubts whether the president would complete the pardon procedure. He stressed that if Duda were to pardon both former ministers, he would not need for that purpose the justice minister, who, under Polish law, also serves as the Prosecutor General.
President wants clear media law
Duda is also concerned about what PiS calls an illegal takeover of the public media, including state broadcaster TVP.
Last month, Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz revoked the public media management that the cabinet said was controlled by PiS and replaced it with a new one. The government cited the need to de-politicise the public media that had become the PiS government’s propaganda tool.
This was met with backlash from PiS and Duda, who were outraged by the fact that the change of management was based on the Commercial Companies Code and not passed with a regular bill.
Tusk is open to discussing potential legislative changes in the public media, provided they are conducted per the law, said the president.
He said he believes “we should calmly and consistently develop statutory solutions regarding the future of public media” and expressed hope “that this will happen in the future.”
After the meeting with Duda, Tusk said he would “do his best” to cooperate with the president on calming social unrest caused by the latest political events.
“We want people to see that our government’s goal is to make people’s lives better,” he told the press conference in the prime minister’s office.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
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Source: euractiv.com
