Polish lower house shortly after midnight on Friday rejected the no confidence motion against the Minister of the Interior and Administration submitted by the opposition. Minister Mariusz Kamiński, who also serves as special services coordinator, has been strongly criticised by Civic Coalition for "damaging" and "spreading pathology" in the services under his command.
In favour of rejecting the motion were 233 MPs, whereas 216 were against. Only one MP abstained. The motion against Kamiński was backed by all opposition clubs: Civic Coalition, the Left, PSL-Kukiz15, as well as the Confederation parliamentary group. Law and Justice club backed the minister.
The no confidence motion was announced after January's "Superwizjer" TVN report, in which former anti-corruption bureau agent Tomasz Kaczmarek (better known as "Agent Tomek") had accused Kamiński of pressuring him during operation regarding a residence allegedly owned by former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski and his wife.
The vote was preceded by a debate in which representatives of all parliamentary groups delivered 5-minute speeches.
The motion was presented by Civic Coalition leader Borys Budka who said Kamiński "has caused probably the worst downfall of the services in history". He added that the ruling party MPs should be ashamed that "instead of order, security and strong state, we live in a state that had led to so many scandals".
In response PiS MP Jarosław Krajewski said his party would vote to dismiss the motion as "absolutely groundless, based on insinuation, lies and unverified information". "This is nothing more than a political attack (...) on one of the most honest and idealistic politicians in Polish public life" - Krajewski added.
Before surviving the vote, Kamiński laid out achievements of the services under his leadership.
He summed up his speech by saying: "a thief is a thief, regardless of which party card he carries".
He added that when he was taking over the command over the services there were still 500 officers from the SB (former special service in communist Poland)". "In this symbolic way we've finally cut the ties with communist special services" - he underscored.
Kamiński was also praised by PM Mateusz Morawiecki who said, among other things, that "today Polish special services are becoming ever more professional, matching the best western services".
Autorka/Autor: gf
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP