Polish president Andrzej Duda will hold further talks with opposition parties on Monday to seek a compromise and end four days of anti-government protest in and around the Warsaw parliament.
Waving Polish and EU flags, anti-government protests – and pro-government marches – were held around the country on Sunday after attempts to curtail media reporting rights in the Sejm parliament prompted an extraordinary standoff on Friday night.
Opposition politicians occupied the speaker’s podium in protest at the expulsion of a colleague who displayed a banner during the budget debate in support of the media.
As their sit-in dragged on, the ruling national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) reopened the parliamentary session in a chamber elsewhere in the complex, blocking access to the opposition and media, and passing the budget behind closed doors.
Critics dismissed as illegal this first Sejm session outside the chamber since the democratic transition of 1989, sparking a blockade of Sejm exits by protesters rallied through social media. Only when police intervened were government leaders able to leave, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Hours later, in a televised address, PiS prime minister Beata Szydlo condemned the protest as "scandalous" and urged critics to respect the views of others.
On Sunday her liberal predecessor Donald Tusk, now head of the European Council, used a visit to Poland to appeal for "respect and consideration of the people, constitutional principles and morals".
Repeat vote demanded
After a first round of talks on Sunday with the president, Mr Duda, who is allied to the ruling PiS party, the opposition Modern party leader
Ryszard Petru
demanded a repeat of Friday’s irregular budget vote.
“We are still in a stalemate,” said Mr Petru.
The government has defended its new Sejm reporting rules, limiting media organisations to two accredited correspondents each and moving everyone else to an adjacent media centre, with an official parliamentary audiovisual feed and no direct access to politicians.
Media organisations view the move, imposed without dialogue, as an attack on press freedom. They may agree a compromise on Monday after weekend talks with the parliamentary president, but are wary of anything that would compromise an important pillar in Polish democracy.
Another pillar, the constitutional tribunal, has been hobbled by the government since taking office a year ago.
For the last year the tribunal has dismissed as unconstitutional a series of far-reaching PiS projects, including judicial appointments and reforms to its own court.
The government has refused to publish any tribunal rulings that challenge the legality of its legislation, accusing the judges of disrespecting Poland’s democratic process and effectively suspending legislative oversight.
After the tribunal's president, Andrzej Rzeplinski, retires as planned on Monday, PiS has vowed to appoint a successor more amenable to its legislative programme.
Public protest
The battle for control of Poland has spilled out on to the streets, but the government has yielded to public protest in the past, most recently on attempts to tighten Poland’s already restrictive abortion laws.
But with attempts afoot to limit public assemblies and impose state oversight of non-government organisations, any compromise deal in the current standoff may be a temporary truce rather than a permanent peace.
PiS moves to consolidate its powers have drawn criticism from Poland's EU partners, but an ongoing European Commission inquiry is unlikely to end in sanctions, given Hungarian support for the PiS government.
As the standoff entered its fourth day, leading public figures in Poland urged calm on all sides.
Jerzy Stepien, former head of Poland's constitutional tribunal, said: "It may lead to a nationwide tragedy. We have to be aware of this."
