The ruling Law and Justice Party’s proposal to set up a special committee to investigate Russian influence in public life, which the opposition said would be used as a tool to prosecute political opponents, failed to make it past a committee vote on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, parliament’s Administration and Internal Affairs Committee rejected the draft to set up the committee with 17 votes in favour and 20 against.
PiS attributed the defeat to three of its MPs not voting in accordance with party lines and said it would continue pushing for the bill to be adopted.
“The adoption of the bill is our aim. We did not submit the draft to be rejected by the committee,” PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“The establishment of the committee is absolutely necessary to purge Poland of agents and villains of various kinds (…), to eradicate the weeds that go against our country,” said MP Sebastian Kaleta from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, as quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.
According to the proposed bill, parliament would appoint a committee of nine members, which include politicians, and experts, while the prime minister would appoint its head.
The committee’s functions would include investigating Russian influence on the activities of public officials, senior management of state-owned companies or other persons who significantly influenced Poland’s internal security, even the media or activists.
It would also be able to revoke administrative decisions from 2007 to 2022 found to have been influenced by the Kremlin and prohibit suspected persons from performing functions related to the disbursement of public money.
According to the opposition Civic Platform (PO), the bill mainly targets the opposition’s past dealings with Moscow as the period cited in the bill covers PiS’ seven-year rule and the eight years during which it governed with the Polish People’s Party (PSL).
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
