Polish justice minister survives vote of no confidence
Justice Minister Adam Bodnar has survived a no-confidence vote held in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament.
In the vote taken on Thursday, 191 MPs voted in favour of the motion, 234 were against, and no one abstained.
The motion was voted down by all of the MPs from the ruling coalition grouping, while all opposition MPs were in favour of it.
On Wednesday, the Sejm's Justice and Human Rights Committee had issued a negative opinion on the motion to dismiss the justice minister.
Bodnar is facing a daunting task of rolling back a wide array of changes to the Polish justice system introduced by the former socially-conservative government dominated by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. The PiS reforms had set Poland on a collision course with the European Union over the rule-of-law standards and led to the EU launching law infringement procedures against the country and freezing billions of euros in the European funding for Warsaw.
Arguing in favour of the no-confidence vote, MP Sebastian Kaleta, a justice minister in the former government and one of the initiators of the motion, said that it had taken Bodnar only 60 days to turn the justice ministry into one of "lawlessness" and to make the Prosecutor's Office into a "private manor" of the Civic Platform, the biggest party in Poland's coalition government.
Donald Tusk, the prime minister, told the Sejm that Bodnar had done much to restore justice in Poland, to build a new order free of political influence and mentioned that the justice minister had accomplished a lot towards the administration of justice and for the Prosecutor's Office.
"I am not surprised that you've done everything possible to prevent Minister Bodnar from completing his job," added Tusk. "But I want to tell you, and I am sure of this, Minister Bodnar will continue his work."
Speaking at the end of the debate, Bodnar said that this type of discussion was a "good opportunity to demonstrate the challenges" the new justice ministry administration was facing.
He pointed out that the primary goal of the changes he was introducing was to rebuild the trust of citizens in the courts and in the Prosecutor's Office. (PAP)
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