Poland's lawmakers vote in 2024 budget but approval is still needed from pro-opposition president
Newly elected Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk addresses lawmakers during his speech at the parliament in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday Dec. 12, 2023. Poland’s lawmakers voted Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 to approve key 2024 state budget that still needs approval from President Andrzej Duda, who is allied with the right-wing opposition. Credit: AP/Czarek Sokolowski
WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s lawmakers voted Thursday to approve the key 2024 state budget, but the draft still needs approval from President Andrzej Duda, who is allied with the right-wing opposition.
The budget also requires endorsement from the Senate and must be presented for Duda’s signing by Jan. 29 or the president could call early elections.
Duda said that ”I don't see such a possibility at all" for calling early elections.
“I hope I will be able to easily sign this budget,” he told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the World Economic Forum. “What I would like is for the government to be able to implement the budget with responsibility.”
It was a crucial declaration as Duda has repeatedly tangled with the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which is taking steps to reverse its predecessors' controversial policies and is bringing some former officials to account. Two members of the previous government have been imprisoned.
Latest surveys show support growing for the pro-European Union coalition government and shrinking for the conservative Law and Justice party that lost October elections after eight years in power.
The lower house, the Sejm, voted 240-191, with three abstentions, to approve budget the bill, which the Senate will take up on Jan. 24.
Swiss Federal President Viola Amherd, right, shakes hands with Poland's President Andrzej Duda, left, prior to a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, corporate and political leaders in Davos under the topic "Rebuilding Trust" from Jan. 15 to Jan. 19, 2024. Credit: AP/Laurent Gillieron
Tusk's new pro-European Union government took office last month and had to work fast to get the budget ready in time.
It provides for government spending of up to 866,4 billion zlotys ($214 billion), with a deficit of up to 184 billion zlotys ($45 billion), or 5.1% of the gross domestic product..
Compared to the draft by the previous conservative government, it gives more money to education and health care and less to the president’s office and various historical institutions — such as the National Remembrance Institute that investigates Nazi and communist crimes against Poles — that were linked to the Law and Justice administration.
“It is a source of great satisfaction for me that indeed ... this budget is for the people,” Tusk said after the vote.
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