2024-10-27 21:48 update: 2024-10-27, 21:50
Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
The Together Party has announced it will not support the 2025 Polish budget unless there is a significant increase in healthcare spending, following its decision to split with the Left grouping, which forms part of the coalition government.
Following a party congress on Sunday, Together decided to leave the Left parliamentary caucus and form its own parliamentary group in the lower house.
During a press conference, Together MP Marcelina Zawisza commented on the 2025 budget proposal, saying that an increase of over PLN 20 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) in healthcare funding is a non-negotiable condition for their support. "It is the absolute minimum if we want this system to function at all," she stated.
Zawisza announced her intention to introduce an amendment to this effect in the finance committee, adding that if it is not passed, the budget will not receive the support of her party's MPs. She suggested that the government could "raise" these funds from banks, developers, and large retail chains.
"We in the opposition have all been saying with one voice that we need to increase spending on the public health system," she said. "Today, the government is proposing a budget that is a poor implementation of the (former Law and Justice government's - PAP) law... it is a capitulation and saying 'let this system collapse'. This is a hidden privatization," she said.
The pro-EU Polish government is composed of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), the liberal Left and the centre-right Third Way, a sub-coalition of the middle-of-the road Poland 2050 and the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL).(PAP)
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