The decision that the presidential bill related to SAFE would not be processed in the Sejm was made unilaterally by Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty. He did not allow any discussion on the matter at the Council of Seniors before Wednesday’s sitting. “In my opinion, this is not urgent,” he stated before leaving the meeting.
The Council of Seniors is an advisory and consultative body in the Polish Sejm and Senate that ensures cooperation between parliamentary groups. It consists of the Speaker, deputy speakers, and the leaders of parliamentary groups. Its main responsibilities include planning the agenda of parliamentary sittings, setting the dates of sessions, and coordinating legislative work. The body also convened ahead of Wednesday’s sitting.
Members of parliament raised the need to urgently place the presidential SAFE bill on the agenda, which had been submitted to the Sejm on Tuesday. Czarzasty refused to allow any discussion on the matter and closed the meeting.
“Czarzasty came to the meeting of the Council of Seniors. He said – we have motions for information and questions regarding current matters. He thanked everyone and wanted to close the meeting. I pointed out that a presidential bill concerning SAFE had been submitted and that it was an urgent matter. I asked why it was not being placed on the agenda. The Speaker replied – in my opinion it is not urgent. He stood up and left,” said Marek Suski, an MP from Law and Justice (PiS), recounting the course of the Wednesday meeting in an interview with Niezalezna.pl.
The assumptions of the proposed solution had earlier been presented to Prime Minister Donald Tusk during a meeting at the Presidential Palace. “Prime Minister Tusk said on Friday that if he received concrete proposals – and yesterday he received them – he would prepare a bill within a few hours. He does not need to prepare one, because the president has already prepared this bill, and yesterday I submitted it on behalf of the president,” said Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Chancellery of the President, on Wednesday morning on Polsat News. He had hoped that the processing of the bill would begin on March 11, when the Sejm session started.
As it turns out, this will not happen. The information was confirmed by Speaker of the Sejm Włodzimierz Czarzasty during a press conference before the sitting.
“We will not process the bill submitted by the president until the process related to the bill that has been sent to the president is completed. Why? Because the president must take responsibility for his decisions,” he stressed.