Poland’s President Duda has announced that he will veto the budget law of the new liberal government. The last high-ranking PiS representative is concerned with restructuring the public media.
Poland’s national conservative President Andrzej Duda wants to veto the budget law of the new government of liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He announced this to Twitter successor X.
Duda justified his move with the current dispute over the restructuring of public media after the change of power. According to Duda, the budget for 2024 provides, among other things, three billion złoty for public media.
Most serious conflict to date
“The public media must first be repaired thoroughly and in accordance with the law,” demanded Duda. He wants to introduce a bill himself after the holidays. Financing public media through a budget law is not acceptable.
A veto by the head of state can be overruled with a majority of three-fifths of the deputies present in the Sejm. However, the government parties together only have 248 of the 460 seats in the Polish lower house.
The conflict over the media is the most serious yet between the new government, whose parties won the majority in the October election, and the former PiS state power. Duda is their last high-ranking representative.
reporting criticized in Poland
On Wednesday, Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz fired the entire leadership of the public broadcaster in one fell swoop. This affected the CEOs and supervisory boards of the TVP television station, Polish radio and the PAP news agency.
The Tusk government accuses the media of spreading party propaganda in recent years under the PiS government. International organizations had also criticized the one-sided reporting by the public media in Poland.
