The Polish Sejm crisis, 16 December 2016—12 January 2017, was a period of political stalemate in Poland's national legislature, resulting from an attempt to limit freedom of the press at the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

buildings in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The attempt to restrict press access to Sejm members and deliberations led to protests by opposition-party Sejm members, and by citizens of Poland's major cities, including

.The Polish Protests of December 2016 Contextualized as a Participatory Budgeting Problem
Chohan, Usman W. (2016). Academic Discussion Paper. Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Accessed 20 December.

Background

On 16 December 2016 during the session of Polish parliament, the

, opposition deputy

Michał Szczerba Michał Roch Szczerba (1977–present) is a Polish politician, member of Polish parliament since 2007 (reelected in 2011 and 2015) from the Platforma Obywatelska party. In 2016 his actions were one of the triggers of the December 2016 Polish p ...

(from

Civic Platform Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk. It ...

party) came to the stage with the card which read "#WolneMediawSejmie" (hashtag "Free press in

") and attempted to fix it to the rostrum. After warnings,

Marshal of the Sejm The Marshal of the Sejm , also known as Sejm Marshal, Chairman of the Sejm or Speaker of the Sejm ( pl, Marszałek Sejmu, ) is the speaker (chair) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th ...

Marek Kuchciński Marek Tadeusz Kuchciński (born 9 August 1955) is a member of the Sejm of Poland, first elected in 2001. Before 2015, he served the parliament as one of the Deputy Marshals of the Sejm, nominated by the Law and Justice club, and also as the Pa ...

, excluded him from debate for disturbance and announced a break. As planned before, opposition deputies started the occupation of the podium and the plenary hall. Subsequently, the MPs of ruling party, Law and Justice, moved the meeting to the Hall of Columns, where the deputies voted on, among other topics, the budget for 2017. A number of MPs from the opposition who still occupied the plenary hall did not participate in the voting, and the vote count was done by show of hands.

Protests

First groups of protesters appeared in front of the parliament before locking the plenary hall in the protest against restrictions for press in Sejm buildings. It included dozens of journalist from mainstream Polish media, including from

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...

Newsweek Polska ''Newsweek Polska'' is a Polish language weekly news magazine published in Poland as the Polish edition of ''Newsweek''. History ''Newsweek Polska'' was established in 2001. The founder of the weekly is Tomasz Wróblewski. The magazine is owned ...

and TVN24. The protest was supported by many people associated with the opposition, including Deputy Marshal of the Sejm

Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska Małgorzata Maria Kidawa-Błońska, née Grabska (born 5 May 1957) is a Polish politician, lawyer, film producer, and sociologist. She was Marshal of the Sejm from 25 June 2015 to 11 November 2015 at the end of the Seventh term's composition of ...

, Civic Platform leader Grzegorz Schetyna, Modern leader

Ryszard Petru Ryszard Jerzy Petru (born 6 July 1972, in Wrocław, Poland) is a Polish politician. He served as an assistant to several members of parliament in the 1990s. He has worked as an economist for the World Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and several Pol ...

, Committee for the Defence of Democracy leader Mateusz Kijowski, civic movement Citizens of Poland. On 16 and 17 December protests were held in many of big cities in Poland including

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Gdańsk,

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

, Szczecin, Katowice,

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini'' * Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...

, Białystok, Lublin, Kielce and

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polish protests, 2016 12 2016 in Poland 2016 protests Protests in Poland Protests in the European Union December 2016 events in Europe Polish