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Ruling Coalition Overhauls State Media, Parliament Debates Budget Bill

POLAND
  • The new governing coalition moved ahead with its plan revamp public media amid firm backlash from the former ruling party Law and Justice, which turned them into its mouthpiece during its eight years in power. The legally controversial plan was a closely guarded secret, with some reports suggesting that the new coalition managed to convince some senior employees to switch sides and help take the main news channel TVP Info off air as the new Culture Minister replaced key managers. President Andrzej Duda gave an interview this morning, noting that Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz's plan violates the constitution and amounts to "anarchy" and "lawlessness". Law and Justice said it will organise sit-ins in the headquarters of public TV to protest the changes.
  • The shake-up of state-owned media has taken centre stage, but it is worth noting that two senior Law and Justice lawmakers Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik have been sentenced for two years in prison and will lose their seats in parliament. Both were pardoned by the President before the announcement of the verdict, which most lawyers (the opinion was shared by the Supreme Court) believe had no legal effect. The President could grant them pardon again, but this would not prevent the officials from losing their seats and would contradict the Presidential Palace's line of argumentation suggesting that the original pardon remains in force.
  • The lower house will today discuss the revised 2024 state budget, with the coalition rushing to get it approved within the next few weeks. This comes after Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski confirmed that EU finance czars agreed to show more leniency towards defence spending while calculating fiscal parameters for the Excessive Deficit Procedure.
  • Statistics Poland will release another batch of monthly economic activity data this morning (09:00GMT/10:00CET), with construction output and retail sales on tap.

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