A Polish left-wing party has decided to leave the Left parliamentary caucus that is part of the current ruling coalition and form a separate group in the lower house amid disagreement over the government’s budget for next year.
Sunday was the second day of the ‘Together’ (Razem) party’s congress which was dominated by discussion over the party’s MPs leaving the Left political alliance’s parliamentary caucus.
The discussion followed an internal referendum held on October 11 and 12, during which 53.75% of the party members supported the motion.
MP Marta Stożek told the Polish state news agency PAP that the party will petition to have its parliamentary group registered within a week. ‘Together’ hopes that by the first session of the lower house in November it will be able to present itself as an independent entity on the parliamentary scene.
There were some notable absences during the congress, as 27 out of about 3,000 members decided to leave the party earlier on Thursday, including deputy speaker of the Senate, Magdalena Biejat and senator Anna Górska, as well as three MPs, who said that they intend to remain members of the Left’s caucus without joining any other party.
This means that the new parliamentary group will have five MPs, reducing the number of members of the Left’s caucus to 21.
It also means that the number of MPs formally supporting the coalition government has been reduced to 241, with 231 needed for majority.
According to party chair Adrian Zanberg, the government of prime minister Donald Tusk had let down the voters who voted for change in the parliamentary elections of October last year.
He said: “The government delivered to the parliament a budget that is bad, [and] anti-society,” adding that “This is not the budget we promised.”
One of the key reasons behind ‘Together’ abandoning the coalition was the issue of how much money the next year’s budget will spend on healthcare. ‘Together’ advocated for an increase on healthcare spending amounting to more than 20 billion zlotys (€ 4.6 billion).
“This is a minimum for this [healthcare] system to somehow function at all,” said MP Marcelina Zawisza, adding that while the current coalition parties were in opposition to the previous right-wing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, they “all spoke in one voice, calling for more spending on public healthcare.
“Today, the government is proposing a budget that is a feeble implementation of the PiS [budget] act [...] amounting to a capitulation and saying ‘let this system collapse.’”
Zawisza added that the money necessary for boosting healthcare spending could be obtained by increasing taxation on banks, construction developers, and large retailers.
Party chair Zandberg said that ‘Together’ will submit amendments to the budget to “fix it” and if these amendments will not be taken into account, the party will vote against the 2025 budget bill.
The discussion followed an internal referendum held on October 11 and 12, during which 53.75% of the party members supported the motion.
MP Marta Stożek told the Polish state news agency PAP that the party will petition to have its parliamentary group registered within a week. ‘Together’ hopes that by the first session of the lower house in November it will be able to present itself as an independent entity on the parliamentary scene.
There were some notable absences during the congress, as 27 out of about 3,000 members decided to leave the party earlier on Thursday, including deputy speaker of the Senate, Magdalena Biejat and senator Anna Górska, as well as three MPs, who said that they intend to remain members of the Left’s caucus without joining any other party.
This means that the new parliamentary group will have five MPs, reducing the number of members of the Left’s caucus to 21.
It also means that the number of MPs formally supporting the coalition government has been reduced to 241, with 231 needed for majority.
According to party chair Adrian Zanberg, the government of prime minister Donald Tusk had let down the voters who voted for change in the parliamentary elections of October last year.
He said: “The government delivered to the parliament a budget that is bad, [and] anti-society,” adding that “This is not the budget we promised.”
One of the key reasons behind ‘Together’ abandoning the coalition was the issue of how much money the next year’s budget will spend on healthcare. ‘Together’ advocated for an increase on healthcare spending amounting to more than 20 billion zlotys (€ 4.6 billion).
“This is a minimum for this [healthcare] system to somehow function at all,” said MP Marcelina Zawisza, adding that while the current coalition parties were in opposition to the previous right-wing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, they “all spoke in one voice, calling for more spending on public healthcare.
“Today, the government is proposing a budget that is a feeble implementation of the PiS [budget] act [...] amounting to a capitulation and saying ‘let this system collapse.’”
Zawisza added that the money necessary for boosting healthcare spending could be obtained by increasing taxation on banks, construction developers, and large retailers.
Party chair Zandberg said that ‘Together’ will submit amendments to the budget to “fix it” and if these amendments will not be taken into account, the party will vote against the 2025 budget bill.
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