– I use the instruments that the Polish constitution gives the president. I am signing the bill because I believe it should come into force. It should start functioning. I believe that Parliament will responsibly select the members of this committee. So that their candidacies and final composition did not raise any doubts in the public opinion whether the committee would work in an objective manner – indicated Andrzej Duda during Monday’s statement.
The president referred to the critical voices regarding the project. – I want to emphasize very strongly that the act does not provide for the verdict of the commission as such to eliminate from public or political life. There is an option to go to court. Therefore, in order for the issue of liability to be finally resolved, the court will decide here, and in my opinion, this is a very strong constitutional guarantee as to the possibility of appealing to two-instance court proceedings, he stressed.
– But because there are people who raise constitutional doubts (…), in addition to signing the bill, which means putting it into force, simultaneously I will also direct it to in a subsequent procedure to the Constitutional Tribunalthat the Constitutional Tribunal also referred to those issues that raise doubts, continued the president.
Commission for the study of Russian influence. Opposition about “lex Tusk”
The Sejm, with the votes of the United Right, decided on Friday to set up a committee for examining Russian influence, overruling the Senate’s veto on the bill. The opposition calls the project “lex Tusk”. – We recognize that this is a completely unconstitutional creation – he noted Tomasz Siemoniak in Monday’s Graffiti.
Opposition deputies are of the opinion that the main premise of the bill is eliminating Donald Tusk from Polish politics. The new commission would operate on principles similar to those of the verification commission for reprivatisation in Warsaw. Its task would be to explain the cases of “public officials or members of senior management who, in the years 2007-2022, under Russian influence, acted to the detriment of the interests of the Republic of Poland.”
Decisions that the committee could take include: overturning an administrative decision issued as a result of Russian influence; issuing a ban on performing functions related to the disposal of public funds for up to 10 years and withdrawing and banning security certification for 10 years.
European commission and support of Ukraine
Before announcing the decision, Andrzej Duda pointed to the need to study Russian influence not only in Poland, but throughout the EU. He listed the countries where bodies examining interference by foreign states operate and informed about his initiative. – I asked the prime minister to bring this matter to the European Council, where the top leaders of EU countries meet (…), that such a commission be established by a joint decision of the Member States – noted the president.
SEE: Council of Europe Summit. Andrzej Duda on Russian crimes: Every torturer must be punished
He added that the European commission should decide on the inflows and flows of Russian money both on the scale of EU institutions and in the cases of individual states. – This money should be traced, wherever possible it should be frozen, blocked, so that they could then be used to rebuild Ukraine Duda said.
The president also assessed that Poland had “good experience when it comes to commissions that worked in public.” – We remember (…) the works of the so-called the Rywin commission. (…) Public opinion could see with their own eyes and ears what the background of political life looks like with us, what the processes look like, how they run and, unfortunately, how many pathologies there were in fact, which were rumored but which had not seen the light of day until then – said Duda. In his opinion, Rywin’s commission helped in the fight against the “plague of corruption”.
jk/ Polsatnews.pl
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