The Senate has a sitting this week, and then a month of vacation – until August 30. According to information from Gazeta.pl, many politicians of the Civic Platform, but also the rest of the opposition, were furious with the marshal, prof. Tomasz Grodzki. – We are fighting for everything in this campaign, and Tomek manages a laby month – says one of the important people in PO.
A well-known PO politician: – This is something that has no right to happen. I hope that there will be an order from the very top for the Senate to do something during the holidays.
The Senate is the redoubt of the opposition, which has the majority here and fully manages the work of the chamber. Although the “redoubt” is an exaggeration, because – and this is the opinion of the PO itself – the way of managing the work of this chamber is courtly, with a break for holidays. Where do these ratings come from?
The next session of the Senate is to be held on July 26-28 (Wednesday-Friday). Another prof. Tomasz Grodzki plans for August 30. So the Senate will have more than a month’s break. It is also worth noting how the work of the second chamber, the Sejm, was planned. Well, Marshal Elżbieta Witek from PiS appointed Friday, July 28 for the meeting. The schedules of the Senate and the Sejm show that Marshal Grodzki wants to “push” more than 30 bills out of the Senate, and Marshal Witek wants to deal with the Senate’s amendments on Friday.
The rumor that Witek and Grodzki reached an agreement on closing all laws this Friday is circulating among opposition parliamentarians. – If such arrangements were made, it would be a nightmare – says the PO MP. Prof. Tomasz Grodzi did not answer the phone from us. Our interlocutors from the opposition admit that Grodzki and Witek have ongoing contact and talk.
Grodzki wants to get away with everything
So far, Grodzki has often used the possibility of protracting the legislative process, because the Senate has up to 30 days to deal with each bill coming from the Sejm. But this time, in one sitting, he wants to get rid of everyone – including those with whom he could wait another two weeks. Thanks to this, he will not have to convene a Senate meeting in August.
Our interlocutors from the opposition suspect that Grodzki has a holiday planned for August. But no one knows for sure. Opposition politician: – Everyone would like to have a holiday, but not this year.
Grodzki did not respond to our contact requests, sending only a request for an SMS, which he did not respond to later.
While the Senate is – according to the plans of Marshal Grodzki – to have more than a month’s break, it is heard in the PiS camp that the Sejm will probably gather in August for an additional session. This may be necessary even if only in August PiS will know the date of the elections to the Sejm, and PiS’s submission of a draft resolution on holding a referendum announced by Jarosław Kaczyński depends on this (PiS wants to hold the referendum on election day).
Counting on frustration in PiS
As our interlocutors from the opposition camp convince us, Grodzki’s decision to let August be free in the upper house is incomprehensible. Also because in August there would be a slightly higher chance that then PiS in the Sejm will not be able to reject the amendments or the Senate’s veto to the bills. And in this package there are laws that evoke emotions, such as the one on the revitalization of the Oder River.
This calculation is as follows: if Grodzki called the Senate for the last possible date, i.e. August 11, to consider the bills passed by the Sejm on July 13, then the decisions of the Senate, returning to Elżbieta Witek late on Friday, could be considered by the Sejm on August 14.
Mid-August is already the time when the PiS lists may be at least partially known to the politicians of the ruling camp. In this calculation, it is important, because PiS will probably lose some of its seats, as indicated by the polls: 20-30-40 people sitting today in the PiS deputies’ benches will not get to the next Sejm, and there are a lot of people willing to be on the list. Some politicians from the United Right camp will get very low, doomed to defeat, seats or even no seats at all. Someone from PiS may therefore break the club discipline and not want to vote as ordered by Nowogrodzka. And since PiS has a minimal majority in the Sejm, the opposition would count on a few frustrations.
The PO is furious at Grodzki
In the PO there is – and there is no exaggeration in this word – fury against Grodzki for the way the Senate is run. According to our information, various opposition politicians made pilgrimages to formally the third person in the country to persuade him to call something for August. So far without success.
An important PO politician says: – The Senate should work during the holidays. After all, we are fighting for everything in this election. We are fighting for the survival of democracy, and our marshal orders a laby month. I hope that the marshal will also come to such a reflection and the Senate will work.
Tusk likes to taunt the third person in the country
Donald Tusk himself is also extremely dissatisfied with Grodzki. – Relations between Grodzki and Tusk? Well, they are not the best – jokes one of the PO members. He’s joking, because Tusk would love to get rid of Grodzki, but Grodzki was very much attached to the chair, formally the third person in the state, and the majority in the Senate was too small and heterogeneous to force him to do so. The only thing Tusk likes about the Marshal is that he gives him reasons to mock him. Our conversations show that Tusk makes fun of Grodzki in private conversations.
Politicians from the PO headquarters, reading this text, can later in the media – because political loyalty requires it – defend Grodzki, but insincerely. Because the belief in the ranks of the opposition that Grodzki is too pompous is widespread.
“It’s palace politics, some sort of perpetual conclave vibe. And here you need some dynamics, pace, social hearing. But the time for plotting and tracking the lists is already there – we hear from one of the PO politicians when he talks about Grodzki at the head of the Senate. Anyway, Prof. It is no coincidence that Grodzki has the nickname “Habemus” in the ranks of PO.
The interlocutor from PO: – Tusk is a leader and works like an ox. And Grodzki? He enjoys power. – He does not even deliver messages on television – laughs another PO MP.
Grodzki’s future is uncertain. Because although he will probably run again for the Senate with the anointing of the PO, many people in the PO would no longer like to make the mistake of anointing him again as the speaker of the upper house. Prof. Generally, in the opposition camp, Grodzki is considered a perfect waste of potential, which the position of marshal gave him.
Source: gazeta.pl
