"What was the point of the meeting?". Protesters disappointed after talks with ministry

Civic Coalition MP Iwona Hartwich announced on Monday (March 6) that a group of disabled persons and their carers have resumed a protest in the lower house of parliament, the Sejm. She also presented a citizens' bill on the social allowance. The protesters also demanded the social allowance be increased to match the national minimum wage, which at the moment is 3,490 gross). The protesters also demand the project be proceeded at the next parliamentary session.

Deputy Minister of Family and Social Affairs Paweł Wdówik met on Monday (March 13) with a delegation sent by the group of disabled people and their carers who are staging a sit-in protest in the Sejm.

The delegation left the ministry before 5 p.m. One of the protesters, Joanna, told reporters that the deputy minister "said he didn't know our demand". "We've been collecting signatures for over a year now, so how can he not know our demand? ... What was the point of the meeting, if he didn't know the demand?" - she asked.

Maciej Hartwich said the ministry representative "didn't put forward any proposals" and "pretended to be unaware why we had even come, despite the invitation". "He said he would have an offer ready for us in a week, but not the proposal to increase the social allowance," he added.

His wife, MP Iwona Hartwich, said that Wdówik "played us like little children, he wasn't prepared, proposed nothing, and on top of that dragged my husband out of the Sejm, who now cannot return to the protest, and really he just laughed in our faces".

Before the meeting, the delegation had told TVN24 reporter Michał Gołębiowski about an unpleasant incident which had happened back in the Sejm.

Maciej Hartwich, who wanted to return to the Sejm after the meeting with the minister, learned that he would not be allowed to do it as he was denied a pass. He received a written denial.

"The problem is that because of security reasons I can't return to the Sejm corridors. I received a written denial, that I won't be let back into the Sejm, despite minister Wdówik's promises. I'd like to say I'm upset, angry at the minister, because I've been played," he said. "The minister should trick citizens this way," he added and reminded that his son, Jakub, was still in the Sejm. "A family has been separated by minister Wdówik from PiS," Maciej Hartwich stressed.

Iwona Hartwich also called upon the deputy minister to keep his word and allow the protesters back into the Sejm.

In the meantime, deputy minister Wdówik gave a statement to the media, in which he assured that by the end of the week he would come up with solutions "aimed at supporting people with disabilities having most urgent need of help, of support". "This way we have ended the meeting," Wdówik added.

"We want to talk and we will talk, despite this difficult meeting we will keep on trying to establish dialogue, but a dialogue ... aimed at support adequate to the needs". "Not evenly to all," he explained.

"We will seek solutions addressed to people with disabilities, just like we have so far," he added. "We will talk, we are focusing on every disabled person and we will propose solutions by the end of the week," the deputy minister said.

Joanna said that she and her son Adrian had been also denied access to the Sejm, although they were not actively participating in the protest. "Even though we are MP Paweł Papke's assistants, we weren't let inside. And we only wanted to visit the group and offer them some small support," she explained. "We just wanted to visit them and leave, just like we did last Monday. Well, unfortunately we are the most dangerous social group," the woman said ironically.

The TVN24 reporter read the written denial of entry that the decision was made in order to keep peace, order, and safety of the Sejm and the Senate.

Maciej Hartwich added that the denial was also "due to participation in an illegal protest on the territory of the Chancellery of the Sejm".

"As a disabled person, who also protested five years ago, I don't think this protest is illegal," said Joanna's son, Adrian. "For everyone has the right to freedom of speech," he added.

In his opinion, "there should not even be a protest, as we should have these things granted by default, and having to ask for them". He also called on deputy minister Wdówik to make sure Maciej Hartwich returns to the protest.