A political storm has broken following the adoption of a bill increasing salaries for members of parliament and top state officials. The opposition, which voted with the majority in favor of the bill, now argues that this was a mistake. Today, the bill was before committees of the Senate.
“The draft, which was proposed by the regulation committee and was supported by all the clubs, and which is now before the Senate, regulates in a systematic way the remuneration of local government officials and the most important people in the state. It creates a transparent system where the three Polish authorities: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are to receive equal compensation”, stated Michał Dworczyk, the head of the chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland.
“Throughout the weekend, I have consulted people who expressed negative opinions, listened to them, I have spoken with other leaders of the opposition parties, and today I will be recommending the Civic Coalition senators to accept the motion to reject this bill in its entirety”, commented Borys Budka, the leader of the Civic Platform party, who voted for the bill.
“I would like to discuss a draft which I will present to political leaders in the Sejm in order to appoint a parliamentary team consisting of several senators, several MPs. This team would then develop a comprehensive programme of salary regulation, which ultimately would be as transparent as in the repeatedly mentioned Sejm of the Second Republic”, followed the Marshal of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki, also from the Civic Platform.
“In times when the quality of Poles’ lives is going down, when there is a recession, a crisis and rising unemployment, such salary increases are simply absurd. It does not matter that there have been no salary increases in the past 20 years. Such a move destroys the country from a social standpoint. Poles view their own challenges and struggles as not being taken seriously”, said Robert Winnicki from the Confederation party.
Following the rejection of the bill by the Senate, and the social backlash, the MPs of the ruling party are allegedly backing off as well and will not support the bill again.