The ruling Law and Justice Party has struck a deal with the opposition party “The Left” on the National Reconstruction Plan. The agreement is of importance because the ruling party’s junior partner “United Poland” has stated that its MPs will not ratify the Reconstruction Plan in parliament. With the MPs of “the Left” on board, ratification is guaranteed which will pave the way for EU fund payments from the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund.
Other opposition parties are outraged about the Left breaking out to support the ratification of the reconstruction plan.
“This law also concerns all the EU funds, 770 billion zlotys in total according to the calculations made by experts. A large part of it will be used for various types of investments in the first 3-4 years, starting this year. This is how we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.” stated Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
After some negotiation, the Law and Justice party accepted some of the key points that the Left desired to be incorporated into the plan, including the construction of an additional 75 thousand social apartments, funds for county hospitals and that at least 30% of the money from the fund will be earmarked for local governments.
“We saw an opportunity for dialogue, which has been sorely lacking in recent times, and we will observe how the situation develops. We have agreed, ladies and gentlemen, that all these things that have been negotiated must find their way into the national Reconstruction Plan.” commented Robert Biedroń, an MEP and leader of the Spring party.
MPs from the largest opposition party, the Civic Platform, call the Left’s decision „a betrayal”.
The ratification is expected to take place at the next session of the parliament, scheduled for May 19th to May 20th.