Polish president moves to pardon arrested lawmakers as thousands gather in protest
CNN
The arrest of Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik is the latest episode in a struggle between Poland’s new centrist government led by Donald Tusk and the ousted PiS party.
Polish President Andrzej Duda says he is seeking a new pardon for two populist lawmakers charged with corruption whose dramatic arrest inside the Presidential Palace brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Warsaw in protest on Thursday. Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, both MPs in the ousted populist group Law and Justice (PiS), were detained Tuesday after seemingly taking refuge inside the Warsaw palace of the PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda. Their arrest was the latest episode in a bitter struggle between Poland’s new centrist government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and PiS, which was defeated in October’s election. Kamiński is a former interior minister and Wąsik a former deputy interior minister. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets in Poland’s capital on Thursday to protest their detention, as well as Tusk’s government. A video posted by PiS MP Katarzyna Sójka showed people filling the streets of Warsaw waving Poland flags. The protest organizers, PiS, claimed some 100,000 people were present, having gathered from across the country. The police have not released official attendance numbers.
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