Podlasie and Lesser Poland assembly – situation. Politicians comment

Law and Justice lost power in the local government of the Podlaskie Voivodeship – the parties in the government coalition, supported by two PiS councilors, led to the election of a new chairman of the local assembly and later of the region's board on Tuesday. Łukasz Prokorym (KO) became the Marshal of the new term. In a secret ballot, Prokorym received 16 votes in the 30-person assembly. PiS nominated the current marshal, Artur Kosicki, for this position, whose candidacy was supported by 13 councilors. One vote was invalid.

In the new assembly of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, PiS won 15 seats, the Civic Coalition eight, Third Road six, and KWW Konfederacja i Niepartyjni Samorządowcy one. The prevailing opinions in post-election comments were that PiS is close to retaining power, and the mandate of Stanisław Derehajło – a councilor from the Confederation and Non-Party Local Government List – may be decisive. However, already in the first vote in the new assembly, it turned out that a different majority had been formed. In an open vote – even before the election of the chairman of the regional assembly – the request of the marshal of the previous term, Artur Kosicki, to interrupt the session at this point and finish it in a month was rejected.

In turn, in Małopolska on Monday MP Łukasz Kmita (PiS) was not elected by the assembly as the new voivodeship marshal. 13 out of 38 councilors present voted for his candidacy, 22 councilors were against and two abstained. One vote was invalid. Kmita was not elected despite the fact that he was the only candidate recommended by PiS, which has a majority in the 39-person Lesser Poland assembly with 21 seats. The Civic Coalition has 12 seats and Third Droga has six seats.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented on the decisions in the regional assemblies on Wednesday in the Sejm. – I have already come to terms with the media's interpretation that PiS won the local elections, so now you have to get out of this interpretation. No one accuses me of such an assessment of the local government elections, he said. He assessed that PiS lost the elections “and today it is suffering the consequences.”

He noted that he talks about it without enthusiasm because he doesn't like situations when there is “any change of colors.” – But there is no doubt that many PiS local government officials are disappointed with PiS, not only because they lost, but also for many other reasons – he noted.

– It struck me, probably for the first time – and this is a very dangerous sign for the PiS authorities – that Mr. Kaczyński's recommendation did not gain recognition in Małopolska. And Podlasie is also such an example, including many counties – added the Prime Minister. He emphasized that he “is not thrilled with people who escape from a sinking ship,” but he understands it.

Deputy Prime Minister, head of the Ministry of National Defense and president of PSL Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told journalists in the Sejm that the decision related to the Podlasie regional council is “dictated by the behavior of the previous term.” – This is dictated by certain humiliations, the failure to implement the program for the Podlaskie Voivodeship that they agreed on – he said. – For us, it is a great success that the Podlaskie Voivodeship decided to entrust the functions of chairman for PSL, marshal for Civic Platform, and we have built a broad coalition – noted Kosiniak-Kamysz.

– The failure of PiS and its style of governance in the Podlaskie Voivodeship over the last five years is a gigantic failure for them and a gigantic disappointment, also for many supporters of the PiS style of governance in Podlasie – he emphasized.

PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński was also asked in the Sejm about the loss of power in the Podlaskie Voivodeship local government. – Such things happen, they are unpleasant, but nothing new in politics – he replied. He added that the party was “moderately” concerned about this.

When asked about the situation of PiS in Małopolska, Kaczyński replied that “a rebellion is a matter of certain differences of opinion.” When asked whether MP Kmita did not like local activists, he replied that “some people sometimes don't like new people, those who are, well, let's say at a higher level in the intellectual sense.” He added that it was sad and he would fight it.

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The head of the PiS club, Mariusz Błaszczak, said that “everyone saw what happened” in the Podlasie local government. – In short, it must be said that there was an act of betrayal – he said.

PiS MP Anna Krupka, following the politician, talked about PiS's “success” in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. – I would like to invite the MP to talk about this undoubted achievement and the fact that the elected councilors in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship are faithful to their voters, and unfortunately two councilors in the Podlaskie Voivodeship are not faithful to their voters – said Błaszczak.

– Please ask those countries who ran on the Law and Justice lists and betrayed them. In the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, our councilors turned out to be loyal, we elected a wonderful marshal – emphasized Krupka.

Politicians were asked about councilor Wojciech Kałuża, who switched to PiS in the Silesian Voivodeship last term, and why they did not call him a “traitor”. PiS MP Waldemar Andzel replied that “he did a good thing for Poland and served Poland well.”

Civic Coalition MP Krzysztof Truskolaski, son of the president of Białystok, stated that “even the MP (Jacek – ed.) Sasin himself came to Podlasie to keep an eye on PiS councilors. And during the votes he escaped, one could say, from the regional council session, as he saw that it didn't work out the way he wanted, he said. “He simply left. He didn't wait until the end of the voting on the management board. After the election of the marshal, I think he was gone,” he added.

He stated that “it was the councilors' decision that they wanted to join our democratic camp, and we are very happy that we managed to create a majority in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.”