In an interview for Polish Radio One this morning Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński repeated that the nurses occupying the PM’s Chancellery are breaking the law and that is why there will be no talks with them.Commenting on the nurses’ decision to go on hunger strike PM said that “lack of supper is not hunger strike yet”.
According to the Prime Minister only after two or three days one will be able to talk about a hunger strike.
“So far they only didn’t eat supper. This hasn’t been harmful to anyone yet,” Jarosław Kaczyński said. He admitted though that this form of protest can lead to “shortening the present situation”.
The Prime Minister is ready to talk with the protesters only when the four nurses leave the Chancellery. Jarosław Kaczyński said that the nurses are committing a crime and that there cannot be a situation when “the Prime Minister talks with some criminals and others by means of relevant services are put in prison”.
On Monday PM Kaczyński announced that in a suitable moment the Public Prosecutor’s Office will be informed about the nurses’ crime.
Jarosław Kaczyński was also surprised with some lawyers’ opinions, who claim that in Poland citizens have right to occupy public buildings. Such views were expressed, among others, by professors Andrzej Rzepliński and Zbigniew Hołda.
The PM said that these opinions are exclusively politically motivated and discredit those who express them as lawyers and as citizens. “These gentlemen lie,” Jarosław Kaczyński stressed.
The Prime Minister reminded that last year his government increased salaries of health service employees by 30 percent; additionally this year there has been a reduction of social insurance premiums, which gives the next 10 percent gross.
The Cabinet is also ready to release hospitals from the pressure of debts. The salaries are to rise next year in connection with the increase of medical procedures expenditures. Jointly this is to provide a 50 percent rise within two years’ time.
Jarosław Kaczyński confirmed that the government is working on a project to introduce changes in the tax law. People of high earnings would have to pay higher taxes to supply the budget. The project is to be presented for social evaluation in a referendum. The PM estimates that changes in the tax law will allow gaining billions of zlotys a year.
(jm)