The dispute between the president and the prime minister flared up after Duda let two wanted ex-ministers into the presidential palace to escape from the police.
Thousands Opponents of Poland's new government demonstrated in Warsaw on Thursday evening, demanding the cancellation of the sackings of state media managers and the release of two imprisoned ex-politicians.
The state news agency PAP estimated the number of protesters at 35,000. The former ruling party, Law and Justice, which remained in opposition after the October elections, calculated that there were as many as 200,000 protesters in the streets, reports news agency Reuters.
An open fight between the leader of the pro-euro Civil Forum, the Prime Minister Donald Hardly and who became president from the ranks of the conservative Law and Law party Andrzej Dudan occasionally flared up on Tuesday. At that time, the police raided the presidential palace and arrested the former interior minister by Mariusz Kamiński and his Deputy Minister Maciej Wasikinwho had escaped the wanted notice in their friend Duda's hote.
After a long argument, the wanted persons surrendered to the police. Kamiński started a hunger strike behind bars on Wednesday and declared himself a political prisoner.
Duda, on the other hand, announced that he would “start the amnesty process”. On Thursday, however, it was unclear whether Duda can pardon the convicts before the December verdict of the Warsaw court becomes law.
Kamiński and Wasik's conviction and search warrant date back to 2007, when the then prime minister and leader of the Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczyński fired by the Minister of Agriculture Andrzej Lepper. Lepper led the rural protest party Samoobrona, or Self-Defense, and Kaczyński suspected him of corruption.
The power duo of the Ministry of the Interior, Kamiński and Wasik, began to investigate Lepper's activities. In 2010, Lepper received a generous two-year prison sentence, but not for corruption, but for demanding sexual services from his party's female workers. Lepper committed suicide in 2011 by hanging himself on the hook of his office punching bag.
The investigative methods of Kamiński and Wasik raised doubts, and they were convicted of accepting a bribe and forging documents in 2015. Duda pardoned them both, but the Supreme Court returned the case for a new hearing at the request of Lepper's relatives, says The New York Times.
The court in Warsaw re-sentenced the duo to two years in prison for the Lepper case last December 20.
To the opposition the remaining Law and Justice is still the largest party in Poland, even though it was not able to form a majority government after the elections. However, Jaroslaw Kaczyński, who has become opposition leader against his will, does not seem to be giving up.
“We must win this great battle for a sovereign and independent Poland,” Kaczyński declared to protesters in central Warsaw on Thursday, according to Reuters news agency.
Poland's next presidential election is due in the spring of next year, so the struggle between the president and the prime minister may very well continue for more than a year.
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