Polish coalition under threat as parliament votes on media bill | Poland

[ad_1]

The future of Poland’s three-party coalition government is in doubt as parliament votes on Wednesday a controversial bill on media ownership that could cause the country’s largest remaining independent television station to lose its license.

After a night of protests in Warsaw and 80 other towns and cities against the bill, which opponents see as an attempt to silence an often critical radio station, the government said on Wednesday it was confident it would win the vote.

But the outcome is far from certain since Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday sacked his deputy, Jaroslav Gawin, the leader of the junior coalition member, for criticizing the law, prompting the party to formally withdraw from the government.

“I count that questions regarding the media law will have a majority in Parliament and I am sure that the United Right government will continue to operate,” government spokesman Peter Mueller told public radio.

The 13 MPs who officially belong to the consensus group in the 460-seat House of Representatives have been increasingly at odds with the United Right’s main coalition partner, the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, and their departure deprives the government. Most of them are single.

But it does not automatically mean the collapse of the PiS-led government, which could require a formal vote of no-confidence in parliament. Mueller said he was confident that “a sufficient number of MPs will support the beneficial reforms we are proposing”.

Observers said PiS will try to persuade individual Accord party deputies to break the party line and will also seek to win over enough independent deputies to secure a majority, as Polish media reported offering money and other inducements.

Gowen said his party was leaving the government “with our heads held high” after expressing deep disagreements over planned tax changes – the so-called “Polish Deal”, aimed at winning government re-election in 2023 – and a media bill.

If passed, the broadcast law would prevent any TV station from being majority-owned by companies outside the European Economic Area, forcing US Discovery Group to sell most of its stake in TVN, Poland’s main private network.

“This law clearly violates the principle of media freedom,” Gwin said, adding that the change “would push us toward confrontation with the United States, which is our most important ally from a defense point of view.”

The opposition civic platform, led since July by former Polish Prime Minister and European Council President Donald Tusk, is determined to defeat PiS and has seized media freedom as an issue that could unite a broad opposition coalition.

Radosław Sikorski, a former Tusk foreign minister and MEP in the European Parliament tweeted on Wednesday: “Our parliament will vote today to disqualify TVN, Poland’s largest independent American-owned television station. If the bill is passed, we will likely cross the point of no return toward a kleptocratic authoritarianism” .

The government denies the measure targets any radio station, saying it seeks to prevent potential takeover of the media by non-EU countries such as Russia and China, and has rejected proposals to restrict the ownership ban on non-OECD countries.

But the move comes on the heels of an ongoing government crackdown on Polish media, in which public service outlets such as the state-run TVP television station have become propaganda devices for the ruling party, while private and independent media have been steadily put out of business.

Washington urged Warsaw to rethink, saying the proposed law would inevitably harm “defense, commercial and commercial relations” between Poland and the United States. Hundreds of Polish journalists and editors also signed an open letter calling on the government to stop “the destruction of media freedom in our country.”

[ad_2]