A split in the coalition on the horizon? PSL gives Tusk an ultimatum

PSL's draft laws are to be treated in the same way as those of other clubs forming the government, said Piotr Zgorzelski, head of the PSL Supreme Council, on Saturday. Until the draft law on patriotic education enters the legislative process, the club will be exempt from supporting coalition partners' projects, he added.

After Saturday's meeting of the PSL Supreme Council, its chairman, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Piotr Zgorzelski, announced that the Council had established “problem and industry committees that will deal with legislative initiatives later recommended to the parliamentary club for implementation.”

This is a signal from today's meeting of the Supreme Council that the projects of the Polish People's Party parliamentary club are just as important and are to be treated in the same way as the projects of other parliamentary clubs forming the majority coalition, Zgorzelski emphasized.

As he explained, this is particularly about the draft bill on patriotic education, which – as he noted – has been in the parliamentary freezer for many months.

– Until this bill enters the legislative path, including the report, the PSL parliamentary club will believe that it is exempt from supporting parliamentary projects of other entities forming the coalition – said the chairman of the party's Supreme Council.

Zgorzelski emphasized that “patriotism is love for the homeland” and “such laws, especially now, deserve special attention and special treatment by the parliament and the government majority.”

The assumptions of the draft law on patriotic education were presented by PSL last summer. It includes, among others: for the establishment of an expert body – the National Education Commission, and also “introducing new forms of civic education preparing for responsibility for the homeland and modernizing educational and upbringing tasks in schools”. As envisaged in the project, one of the important tasks of the National Education Committee will be to establish a list of places to which secondary school students should visit.

Zgorzelski also added that the group plans to present the assumptions of a new program at the program congress scheduled for the end of the year.

The president of PSL, deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, noted that two years until the parliamentary elections “must show the role of PSL in this coalition.”

PSL plays as a team and is a cohesive team. He will play anyway. But more and more often he will show why this team is possible, he announced.

He emphasized that PSL is going to the next elections “not only with a message about security”, but will strive very hard “for the economy, for entrepreneurs, for a productive countryside”.

At Saturday's meeting of the PSL Supreme Council, a new presidium of this body was elected. PSL MP, senior marshal Marek Sawicki, Damian Simiński, Jolanta Starzewska and Piotr Żuchowski became vice-chairmen of the Council. Konrad Gwóźdź and Michał Pyrzyk became secretaries. (PAP)

from/ agz/