Sejm ethics committee punishes Kaczyński for calling police “the ruling party’s militia”

On Tuesday the Sejm ethics committee punished Jarosław Kaczyński for calling police officers “the ruling party’s militia”, committee member Ewa Schädler (Polska 2050) told PAP. The leader of PiS (Law and Justice) made the remark on 10 July on plac Piłsudskiego in Warsaw, during the monthly laying of wreaths in memory of the Smolensk air disaster: police did not let PiS politicians through to the Lech Kaczyński monument, and they laid their wreaths to one side.

“We are dealing, in essence, with the ruling party’s militia, not with the police, and conclusions will have to be drawn from this,” Kaczyński said at the time, adding that “some kind of civic guard will have to be created”. The head of the MSWiA (interior ministry), Marcin Kierwiński, called his behaviour “scandalous”, and Maria Janyska (KO, Civic Coalition), who chairs the Sejm committee on administration and internal affairs, filed a motion with the ethics committee to have him punished.

Under the rules, the committee can punish a deputy with an admonition, a warning or a reprimand; the decision can be appealed within 14 days of the ruling being served.