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Polish lawmakers reject bid to oust justice minister

14.12.2022 06:30
Polish lawmakers have rejected a bid to oust the country’s justice minister amid a protracted row over judicial changes and a long-standing rule-of-law dispute with Brussels.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro speaks in the Sejm, the lower house of Polands parliament, on Tuesday.
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro speaks in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament, on Tuesday.Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

A total of 228 MPs late on Tuesday voted to defeat a no-confidence motion put forward against Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro by the opposition.

Meanwhile, 226 deputies supported the motion, and three abstained, state news agency PAP reported.

The bid had little chance of succeeding because the country’s governing conservatives hold a majority in parliament.

The vote came after the opposition last month accused Ziobro, who also serves as prosecutor-general, of creating chaos in the Polish judiciary and putting the country on a collision course with the European Union.

The opposition has also accused Ziobro of using the prosecution service as a political weapon and of being responsible for the EU's refusal to release funds to Poland under the bloc's post-pandemic recovery package.

Conservative politicians including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki defended Ziobro in parliament on Tuesday, saying the minister was playing a key role in efforts to reform an inefficient judicial system marred by decades of neglect and irregularities.

Legal changes in Poland have triggered a series of clashes between Warsaw and Brussels in recent years.

Ziobro earlier this year accused the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, of "stealing" millions from his country "under pressure from Germany" as part of a dispute over the rule of law.

(gs)

Source: PAPrmf24.pl