Poland's former prime minister Leszek Miller has called upon left-wing MP's to vote against President Kaczynski's media bill veto.
Lech Kaczynski vetoed the bill on Friday claiming that passing it would lead to the Polish public media becoming ever more commercial.
"I call upon all representatives of the Left in the Sejm to vote against this veto,” appealed Miller, stressing that the failure to reach an agreement with the Civic Platform (PO) in earlier days should now be forgotten.
"The dominance of Law and Justice (PiS) in the public media should be brought to a halt,” stated Miller.
The former prime minister also announced that the first congress of the Polish Left (PL) will take place in Warsaw 25 May, during which party authorities will be chosen. The turnout is estimated at 250 delegates representing around 1,100 party members. The motto will be "Market economy. Welfare state."
Miller stressed that today's Left should focus not only on "dividing national income", but also on finding an answer to the question of where to find means for financing social services.
In January Miller was chosen as head of the new party, after he gave up his membership in the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) in September for not being included in the voting list of the Left and Democrats (LiD) election alliance.
In the last parliamentary election Miller was number one on the Self-Defense (Samoobrona) list in the city of Lodz, central Poland, but the party failed to get into the new parliament prompting Miller to announce that he would be establishing a new left-wing party. (mn)
Related stories
President Kaczynski vetoes media bill, thenews.pl, May 16
PM not surprised with presidential media bill veto, thenews.pl, May 17