Elections for the Marshal of the Małopolska Province. There will be a third attempt, Łukasz Kmita is the candidate anointed by PiS

If the third attempt at choice the Speaker's office does not bring any results, then – as the chairman of the regional assembly, Jan Tadeusz Duda, informed – an extraordinary session will be convened. The only candidate for Speaker, Łukasz Kmita (PiS), was not elected during the last two votes, despite the fact that Law and Justice in the 39-person Małopolska regional assembly he has a majority, with 21 seats. His candidacy was first voted for by 13 votes, and then by 17 – out of the 20 required.

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According to the regulations, the provincial assembly must elect a marshal within three months of the announcement of election results, i.e. by July 9. If this does not happen, early elections in the province will be necessary. In a letter to the chairman of the provincial assembly, Łukasz Kmita asked for the session not to be convened until July 10 or for the session to be adjourned until that day. He justified his request with the “good of Law and Justice”.

According to Jan Tadeusz Duda, this is an ill-considered request and cannot be fulfilled, among others. due to the second reading scheduled for Monday's session and the adoption of a resolution on the adoption of an environmental protection program against noise. – This resolution must be adopted because this is what the law obliges us to do. If I did not call the session, I would be held criminally liable for not ensuring that the tasks were completed on time. These are timely tasks of the voivodeship government, he emphasized.

Read also: A secret letter regarding the election of the marshal was leaked. “Aims for the good of PiS”

Referring to the possible break in the session proposed by Kmita, he said that it was his duty to comply with the statute. – My role is to conduct the deliberations efficiently, not to disband the assembly. The efficient conduct of the meeting allows for the announcement of breaks; I have the right to call a break at any time. But this is supposed to be a break to facilitate the proceedings, not to make them more difficult, he replied.

According to unofficial information, councilors gathered around the current Speaker Witold Kozłowski and, more broadly, Beata Szydło and Andrzej Adamczyk. During the last session, the candidate tried to alleviate this conflict by proposing Kozłowski to the new voivodeship board as the first deputy marshal. Among the members of the new voivodeship board proposed by Kmita there was no representative of Sovereign Poland, which has two councilors in the assembly, even though the coalition agreement provides for such a position for a representative of this party.

After the first vote in May, the president of PiS Jaroslaw Kaczynski When asked by journalists about the situation of PiS in Małopolska, he said: “Well, rebellion is rebellion, it is a matter of certain differences of opinion”. When asked whether local activists did not like MP Kmita, he replied: “Sometimes some people do not like new people, those who are, well, let's say, from a higher shelf in the intellectual sense”. He added that it is unpleasant and he will fight against it. After another vote in June, when Kmita again did not obtain the required majority of votes, PiS spokesman Rafał Bochenek commented that one cannot “leave these matters unanswered”. “Therefore, for people who behaved unfairly towards the majority of PiS councillors, and above all voters, consequences will be drawn at the party leadership level” – he declared. He added that the future fate of Małopolska “depends on some people holding positions in the Małopolska regional council”.

On Friday, Bochenek announced that, by decision of PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, the director of the regional council's office, Michał Ciechowski, had been suspended from the PiS party and steps would be taken to remove him from the party. “In accordance with the decision of the party leadership, the voting on Monday will be subject to discipline regarding the selection of the composition of the board of the Małopolska province recommended by the PiS leadership,” the PiS spokesman said. Łukasz Kmita, 38, comes from Olkusz. In the years 2020-2023, he was the Małopolska province governor. In the last parliamentary elections, he was elected as a member of parliament from the PiS list. Recently, he unsuccessfully ran in the local elections for the mayor of Kraków.