Senate speaker accuses ruling party of preparing for Polexit

A senior opposition politician has accused Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the governing Law and Justice party (PiS), and other PiS members of paving the way for Polexit.

Tomasz Grodzki, who is the senate speaker, also said that the behaviour of the PiS politicians risks Poland losing access to a multi-billion euro EU pandemic fund.

The European Commission has stipulated that Poland has to achieve certain 'milestones' related to judicial independence and the rule of law before the funds would be made available.

The Polish government argues that recent legislation, which wound up a key judicial disciplinary chamber that the EU said lacked independence, has hit all the milestones, but this is disputed by Brussels and critics in Poland.

Grodzki referred to the case of Piotr Gaciarek, a judge who was suspended by the now abolished chamber but has yet to be reinstated.

The senate speaker said that "there is no doubt that both the rhetoric of the PiS party president and the behaviour of some officials of that party, who give orders to their obedient subordinates; and here I have in mind Judge (Piotr) Gaciarek, who has won all due court proceedings but has not returned to work, means nothing other than provoking and preparing us for Polexit."

"(Former Prime Minister Donald - PAP) Tusk spoke about it recently, some people laughed, but they were clearly wrong," Grodzik continued. "Because what's happening at the moment on the political scene is unambiguous but unfortunately in financial terms is tragic for Poland."

Opposition politicians have frequently accused the current government, which is locked in numerous disputes with Brussels, of planning to drag Poland out of the EU.

But the government has always denied this, saying it is a committed member of the bloc.