Polish ruling party loses vote on Covid law after rebellion from own MPs

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party suffered a rare parliamentary defeat last night after MPs – including some from its own caucus – voted to reject legislation intended to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

The bill had been advocated by and become associated with PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. An opposition leader described last night’s vote as a “spectacular defeat for Kaczyński” and called on the government to resign as it cannot command a parliamentary majority.

PiS officials, however, accused the opposition of irresponsibly playing politics with public health and of being more interested in fighting the government than the pandemic.

The legislation in question was proposed last week by PiS after a meeting with opposition parties to discuss Covid policy. It replaced a previous bill, also tabled by PiS, which had been delayed for months amid opposition from within the ruling party’s own ranks.

The aim of the initially proposed law was to give employers the right to check the vaccination of their staff and, if an employee is not vaccinated, to reorganise their work accordingly. It would also have allowed the heads of medical institutions make it obligatory for staff to vaccinate.

Opponents of the bill, including a handful of PiS MPs, condemned the measures as “sanitary segregation” and, despite meetings with the party leadership, refused to support them.

On 25 January, the government met with opposition leaders to discuss Covid policy, and afterwards announced that a new bill would be presented based on ideas discussed at the meeting. It was submitted two days later, and came to be widely known as “lex Kaczyński”.

The proposed law would have, among other measures, allowed employers to request that staff provide information on a negative test result once per week. Any infected employees would be able to seek compensation from colleagues who had not submitted tests, reports TVN24.

Yesterday, however, the new bill was rejected by the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, with 253 votes against it and 152 in favour. Almost all of the latter were from PiS; however, 24 members of the party’s caucus joined the opposition to vote against. A further 37 abstained and 16 did not vote.

Two of the rebels – Anna Maria Siarkowska and Janusz Kowalski – celebrated the result of the vote on Twitter. “No to the leftist sanitary policy that is bankrupting Europe! No to discrimination! Yes to improving the health services!” tweeted Kowalski. “Let’s support Poles and fight for their freedom.”

Borys Budka, head of the parliamentary caucus of Civic Coalition (KO), the largest opposition group, called the legislation “probably the biggest [piece of] legal trash in the history of the Polish parliament”.

He said that it would shift the fight against the pandemic onto the public instead of the authorities and into courtrooms rather than hospitals, reports Business Insider Polska. It proves that the government has “raised the white flag and showed its helplessness in the fight against the pandemic”.

PiS deputy spokesman Radosław Fogiel hit back, noting that in the past PiS has been criticised for not introducing tough enough sanctions but was now being accused of measures that are too severe, reports TVP Info.

The party’s main spokeswoman, Anita Czerwińska, accused the opposition of “unfortunately using the pandemic in a very dishonourable way for political [purposes]”.

It “does not want to fight the pandemic, to work on behalf of Poles, but [instead wants] to fight against the Polish government”, she added, claiming that the opposition had been unwilling to discuss amendments to the legislation.

Budka, however, declared that, “if the government does not have a majority in a matter of key importance to Poles, it should resign”, reports TVN24. He rejected the idea that the opposition had been deliberately obstructive, saying that “Kaczyński himself ruined [the bill] by making such absurd proposals”.

Similar accusations were made by The Left (Lewica), the second largest opposition group. “It is Kaczyński who is personally responsible for the fact that in Poland there is no idea how to fight the pandemic,” said the head of its parliamentary caucus, Krzysztof Gawkowski.

“Every coffin, every death, every family in despair is the fault of this government,” he added, quoted by TVN24. The Left has proposed that vaccination against COVID-19 be made compulsory, but the idea has not received the support of any other group.

“Lex Kaczyński has fallen because it shifted the responsibility for what is happening in our country onto citizens…[despite] the state having all the instruments to save the lives and health of citizens,” added Marcelina Zawisza, an MP from The Left. She accused PiS of “surrendering to a group of anti-vaxxers” in its own ranks.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.