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Duda Pardons Imprisoned Off'ls, Const Court Raises Barriers To Prosecuting NBP Chief

POLAND
  • President Andrzej Duda ordered the Public Prosecutor General to launch a procedure that will lead to the pardoning of two convicted opposition party officials, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik. The head of state had earlier insisted that he could not pardon the officials, because he already did so in 2015, although most lawyers considered that move to be legally flawed and thus ineffective. This time around, Duda used a different procedure (likely seeking to avoid an admission that the initial pardoning was flawed), which may take a couple of months to be completed, depending on the discretion of the Public Prosecutor General. Even after the two officials are eventually released from prison, which could happen earlier, they will not regain their parliamentary seats.
  • The Constitutional Tribunal struck down legislation regulating the procedure of putting the NBP Governor on trial before the Tribunal of State. The top court ruled that the parliamentary majority required to prosecute the central bank chief should be at least 3/5 of all MPs (as is the case with Cabinet Ministers). The verdict means that the new ruling coalition will not be able to probe NBP Governor Adam Glapinski. It also highlights a significant for the new government, which faces a Constitutional Tribunal filled with the appointees of the previous administration.
  • NBP's Henryk Wnorowski told Biznes24 that he "doesn't see a need to return to interest rate hikes at the moment" and thinks there will be no such need "irrespective of what happens after March, and then more importantly June, after the end of June". Separately, his colleague Ludwik Kotecki told TOK FM that inflation will ease in Q1 before rebounding to around +5%-7% Y/Y.
  • The main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party held a rally in Warsaw to protest against the actions of the new government. Its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused the ruling coalition of seeking to introduce the euro, which he called "a plan of big robbery of Poland and Poles".
  • Poland's current account data will cross the wires at 13:00GMT/14:00CET.

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