“Would it not be appropriate now to present Mr Czarzasty with a decommunization act? I would start with a simple provision – a ban on holding public functions for all those who were members of the communist party, except for directly elected positions, because that would violate democracy and the constitution,” proposed on TV Republika the station’s president, Tomasz Sakiewicz.
The newly elected Speaker of the Sejm, chosen by the parliamentary majority, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, announced in his Friday evening address the introduction of a mechanism unknown to Polish law, a marshal’s veto (in relation to harmful legislative initiatives that promote populism and disrupt the principles governing the functioning of the state). In practice, it will likely function as the so-called Sejm freezer, and the entire initiative is aimed at the activity of the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki.
Many doubts and expressions of outrage were also triggered by the fact that Czarzasty had in the past belonged to the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) and that he staffed his surroundings in the Chancellery of the Sejm with former communist apparatchiks. In response, Tomasz Sakiewicz, president of TV Republika, presented a certain idea.
“Would it not be appropriate now to present Mr Czarzasty with a decommunization act? I would start with a simple provision, a ban for all those who were in the communist party, except for directly elected positions, because that would violate democracy and the constitution. So, if someone is elected as a city councillor, an MP, or a senator, that is one thing, but all functions indirectly rooted in democracy should simply be off limits to former communist party members. This should be the proper reaction to what is happening in the current political landscape. Since communism is returning, the anti-communist movement must respond decisively. I appeal to all members of Solidarity (S) to get involved in this: a ban on holding functions by all members of the communist party who do not come from elections. I believe that, symbolically, because it concerns a narrow group of people, it would ensure that no one even considers such ideas. Even if such a law is frozen by a communist speaker, let him wrestle with it, let him freeze it, let him look into the fridge every day where he keeps the law saying he should not be,” Sakiewicz said on air.