At today's joint meeting of the health and justice committees in the Sejm, Poland's lower parliamentary chamber, the deputies were to receive information on the case of Krzysztof Grzegorek, former deputy health minister charged with taking a 20,000-zloty bribe, back in the time when he was still head of a hospital in Skarzysko-Kamienna, south-central Poland. 

However, members of the PO-PSL coalition voted to remove the discussion concerning corruption in health care from the agenda. In reaction to that, members of PiS ferociously opposed what they see as curbing the rights of the opposition at a press conference which took place after the meeting.

"The ruling Civic Platform party promised that Poland would follow in Ireland's footsteps, meanwhile democratic standards are being violated in Poland as if it were Belarus. By hushing the opposition, one takes away one of its basic rights. And there is no democracy without the opposition", said MP Andrzej Dera, adding that the government apparently considers corruption as a matter of little importance. 

Law and Justice (PiS) is now demanding Bronislaw Komorowski, the speaker of the Sejm hailing from the Civic Platform (PO), to react to this situation. (mn)