The Speaker of Poland’s parliament, Szymon Hołownia, has proposed breathalyser tests for MPs after he expelled one from the chamber for allegedly being drunk and disorderly.
On February 20, Hołownia asked Ryszard Wilk, an MP from the right-wing Confederation (Konfederacja) party, to leave the chamber after the latter had disrupted proceedings. The Speaker then declared the Polish parliament would henceforth be “dry”.
“I smelled a distinct odour of alcohol from him and asked him to leave immediately,” said Hołownia after the parliamentary sitting.
He added that he had “ordered the chancellery of parliament to prepare solutions that will allow MPs to be tested with a breathalyser”.
“We are ending the long tradition of tolerating the presence of drunken MPs. Not on my watch.”
Wilk, who last year made headlines after an incident in which he confronted police officers while apparently under the influence of alcohol, issued a statement on February 21 “sincerely apologising to everyone for my behaviour”.
The MP admitted he was struggling with alcohol addiction. “I have tried to conscientiously perform my duties as an MP but I am losing to alcoholism,” he said.
His party has suspended him but wished him well in having treatment for his affliction.
Speaker Hołownia fined him €1,000 for the incident in parliament.
Also on 20 February, in a heated debate over removing the parliamentary immunity of former justice minister in the previous Conservative (PiS) government Zbigniew Ziobro, a fellow PiS MP Edward Siarka shouted out that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk should be shot.
The incident occurred during a speech by Ziobro, in which the former justice minister said Tusk should be sent to jail, with Siarka loudly calling out: “Bullet in the head.”
Siarka was called upon to apologise by the deputy speaker and complied immediately.
In a subsequent post on social media, Siarka suggested he had been quoting a poem by Polish Word War Two soldier Władysław Broniewski that included the line: “For that hand raised over Poland – a bullet in the head.”
Tusk’s colleagues nevertheless pounced on Siarka’s outburst, while justice minister Adam Bodnar announced that he had submitted notification of an alleged crime committed by him over the outburst.
Siarka’s PiS colleagues criticised their colleagues’ behaviour but recalled how Tusk had quoted a Polish poet who called for the hanging of traitors when speaking about PiS politicians, and was not prosecuted for his remarks.
Parliament voted to remove Ziobro’s immunity so the courts could consider a request by the parliamentary committee, which is investigating the use of Pegasus’ spyware, for Ziobro to be detained and brought before the bench.
The Polish parliament was calmer on February 21 when it approved legislation allowing the government to suspend the right to claim asylum for people who illegally cross the border. That came as as part of the policy termed the “instrumentalisation of migration” by a foreign State.
The measure had been called a violation of European Union and international law by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, but was overwhelmingly endorsed by parliament with only Left Party’s MPs voting against.
