Current:Home > StocksPoland’s new government is in a standoff with the former ruling party over 2 convicted politicians-InfoLens
Poland’s new government is in a standoff with the former ruling party over 2 convicted politicians
View Date:2024-12-23 14:35:07
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president on Tuesday gave refuge to two politicians convicted of abuse of power, welcoming the members of the former ruling party into the presidential palace as police went to their homes to arrest them.
The legal drama is building into a standoff between the new government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Law and Justice, the national conservative party that governed Poland for eight years until last month following its defeat in a general election in October.
President Andrzej Duda, whose second and last term runs until mid-2025, is closely aligned politically with Law and Justice, and is making it clear that he will oppose Tusk’s agenda.
The escalating dispute centers on two senior members of Law and Justice, former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former deputy Maciej Wasik. They were convicted of abuse of power for actions taken in 2007, when they served in an earlier Law and Justice-led government, and were sentenced in December to two years in prison. They both insist that they are innocent.
On Monday a court issued orders for police to arrest them and deliver them to prison.
After Law and Justice won power in 2015, Duda issued a pardon to Kaminski and Wasik after they were convicted of abuse of power but before their appeals had gone to a higher court, allowing them to take on high government positions. Many legal experts argued that presidential pardons are to be reserved for cases that have gone through all appeals.
In June, Poland’s Supreme Court overturned the presidential pardons and ordered a retrial.
On Tuesday, Duda invited Kaminski and Wasik to his palace for a ceremony where he appointed two officials who had worked for them as his new advisers. His office posted a photo of him posing with all four.
After the ceremony, Kaminski and Wasik went outside to deliver remarks to reporters, telling them police had searched their homes while they were away. They then went back inside the presidential palace, where they remained for several hours.
“We are not hiding,” Kaminski said. “We are currently with the President of the Republic of Poland until evil loses.”
Prime Minister Tusk accused the president of going along with actions by Law and Justice to create chaos and instability after its electoral defeat.
“He (Duda) must stop this spectacle, which is leading to a very dangerous situation,” Tusk said.
Parliamentary Speaker Szymon Holownia postponed a planned session of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, which had been scheduled to start on Wednesday, until next week.
Kaminski and Wasik, who were reelected as lawmakers in October, said they wanted to take part in the session, even though Holownia and others insist that, under the law, their guilty sentences strip them of their parliamentary mandates.
Holownia said the situation had created a “deep constitutional crisis ... that does not guarantee that the Sejm’s deliberations this week would be peaceful.”
Tusk said that Duda was now obstructing justice. At a news conference, he read out a section of the penal code that he alleged that Duda had violated, which carries a prison term from three months to five years.
“I just want the president to be aware of what his political friends have tricked him into. They are the ones setting a trap for him, not me,” Tusk said.
veryGood! (965)
Related
- Summer I Turned Pretty's Gavin Casalegno Marries Girlfriend Cheyanne Casalegno
- Lil Nas X documentary premiere delayed by bomb threat at Toronto International Film Festival
- Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has a book coming out next spring
- Cowboys QB Dak Prescott's new tattoo honors late mom
- Birth control and abortion pill requests have surged since Trump won the election
- Will Hurricane Lee turn and miss the East Coast? Latest NHC forecast explained.
- Historic fires and floods are wreaking havoc in insurance markets: 5 Things podcast
- Call of Duty: How to fix error code 14515 in Modern Warfare 2
- Skiing legend Lindsey Vonn ends retirement, plans to return to competition
- Greece’s shipping minister resigns a week after a passenger pushed off a ferry ramp drowns
Ranking
- Bill on school bathroom use by transgender students clears Ohio Legislature, heads to governor
- The first attack on the Twin Towers: A bombing rocked the World Trade Center 30 years ago
- Jennifer Garner's Trainer Wants You to Do This in the Gym
- All the Celebrity Godparents You Didn't Know About
- 'Red One' review: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans embark on a joyless search for Santa
- UN envoy urges donor support for battered Syria facing an economic crisis
- Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev meet again in the US Open men’s final
- Small plane crash at air show in Hungary kills 2 and injures 3 on the ground
Recommendation
-
Karol G addresses backlash to '+57' lyric: 'I still have a lot to learn'
-
Ja'Marr Chase on trash talk after Bengals' loss to Browns: 'We just lost to some elves'
-
Novak Djokovic wins US Open, adding to record number of men's singles Grand Slam titles
-
Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales resigns after nonconsensual kiss at Women’s World Cup final
-
Catholic bishops urged to boldly share church teachings — even unpopular ones
-
European Union home affairs chief appeals for release of Swedish EU employee held in Iranian prison
-
Overdose-reversing drug administered to puppy after possible fentanyl exposure in California
-
New Mexico governor issues order suspending the right to carry firearms in Albuquerque