Defeat on virus law shows rifts in Poland's ruling coalition
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The defeat of a proposed COVID-19 law in Poland's parliament over free testing for employees has exposed deep divisions inside the ruling right-wing coalition and the waning influence of the country's most powerful politician, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, analysts said Wednesday.
Some 61 lawmakers of the United Right ruling team led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party abstained or voted against the law in the 460-seat lower house late Tuesday. Another 15 of the ruling coalition's 228 lawmakers didn't even show up. Analysts said the result marked an unprecedented degree of dissent within the ruling coalition and poses a challenge to Kaczynski's leadership.
The vote indicates that “the United Right does not exist as such any more," political analyst Barbara Brodzińska-Mirowska from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun told private TVN24. “The rifts are really deep and the games and interests are very much advanced, and things will not get better."
It also shows the “political weakness of Jaroslaw Kaczynski,” who pushed for the law's adoption. The outcome will have “quite big consequences on the work of the parliament and on our political life,” Brodzinska-Mirowska said.
The widely criticized draft law would mandate free, regular COVID-19 testing of employees and enable those who believe they got infected in the workplace to seek compensation from colleagues who refused testing.
Poland is facing a record surge of new infections driven by the omicron variant but only 57% of its population is fully vaccinated, much lower than the European Union average of 70%. A nation of 38 million people, Poland reported more than 56,000 new infections Wednesday.
The opposition Civic Platform party leader, Borys Budka, said on Twitter that the vote was...