Tension mounts in Poland after President denounced state media reforms announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's led government on state television. President Andrzej Duda had termed reforms by Tusk government as "anarchy".
The culture minister, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, on Wednesday announced that the chairs and boards of state television, news and radio had all been removed, prompting lawmakers from the conservative Law and Justice party to protest outside the headquarters of state broadcaster TVP.
The TVP 24-hour news service’s regular broadcast was suspended on Wednesday. Tusk, a former president of the European Council, was sworn in as PM on December 12.
The changes in the state media was to restore impartiality, the government had said.
State media, and in particular news channel TVP Info, were accused of having become outlets for propaganda under the rule of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Duda told private broadcaster Radio Zet that the sudden implementation of those changes went against the constitution by avoiding the appropriate parliamentary procedures."These are completely illegal actions," he said. "This is anarchy."
PiS lawmakers, who had taken part in the protests at TVP's offices, walked out of the parliament chamber on Thursday after their motion to hold a debate was struck down by the majority.
"The liberal-left coalition feels that they are so powerful that they don't have to observe the law," PiS lawmaker Marcin Przydacz was quoted by Reuters. While, Tusk said the actions were aimed at "restoring legal order and common decency in public life" and that Duda should expect to see "iron" determination on the matter.
The new government considers Duda himself to have been involved in multiple violations of the constitution during PiS's eight years in power. Meanwhile, former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik from PiS were sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison for abuse of power in previous posts.
