After a surprising turnaround: Poland's parliament votes for controversial media law

One day after the break-up of the national-conservative coalition in Poland, parliament approved the government's controversial media law on Wednesday evening.

Previously, the vote had kept Parliament in suspense for hours when a decision was initially postponed, but was then voted in the evening.

According to the opposition, the law threatens the freedom of the press and could affect relations with the United States.

The parliament in Warsaw resumed its session on Wednesday evening after a previous vote had actually decided to postpone it with 229 to 227 votes.

But parliamentary president Elzbieta Witek from the national conservative ruling party PiS had the vote repeated - because she had not given a date for the postponement of the meeting.

In the second round, 229 parliamentarians spoke out against postponing the plenary session.

Morawiecki's deputy goes into opposition

In the dispute over the change in the law, the government alliance of the PiS had previously collapsed. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had dismissed his deputy Jaroslaw Gowin, whose group Porozumenie (Understanding) ended the cooperation with the PiS. The official reason for the dismissal of 59-year-old Gowin was that his group had not worked on reforms of the PiS at a sufficient pace. Gowin had criticized the fact that massive tax increases are planned for a planned economic stimulus program.

Gowin's spokesman Jan Strzezek announced on Twitter that the company wanted to act as an independent parliamentary group from now on.

Five deputy ministers from Gowin's camp volunteered.

Porozumenie formed the list alliance "United Rights" with the PiS and another small party and provided 12 of 232 members of the government camp.

The plans introduced by the PiS in July provide that broadcasting licenses can only be issued to foreigners if they “have their headquarters or their place of residence in the European Economic Area”.

In addition, the condition applies that the licensee must not be dependent on someone who has headquarters or residence outside of this economic area.

According to critics, the law targets the private broadcaster TVN, which is part of the US group Discovery through a holding company registered in the Netherlands. The news channel TVN24 in particular takes a line that is critical of the PiS. Gowin had criticized the novella.