Members and supporters of Law and Justice from Przemyśl and the Przemyśl district, after participating in the Holy Mass in the church of the Salesian Fathers, met on January 22 at the Teacher Training Center to traditionally exchange Christmas wishes, sing Christmas carols together, but also to recall the significant events of the previous year and discuss the opportunities and threats arising at the threshold of the recently started year 2012.
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After the consecration of the wafers placed on the tables by the Parish Priest Kazimierz Skałka, the host of the meeting, the President of the Law and Justice Club in the Przemyśl City Council, Władysław Bukowski, asked Senator Andrzej Matusiewicz to officially welcome the guests.
The guest of honor was the Deputy Speaker of the Polish Parliament, Marek Kuchcinski. Other guests of the meeting included: Andrzej Buczek, chairman of the Regional Board of the Solidarity Trade Union and also a provincial councillor; Marek Kaminski, the first chairman of the Solidarity Trade Union in the Przemysl region; MP of the Law and Justice of the past term - Adam Sniezek from Rzeszow, chairman of the City Council of Przemysl - Jan Bartminski, councillor of the Provincial Assembly and former starost of Przemysl - Stanislaw Bajda, former starost of Przemysl - Mariusz Grzęda, former vice governor and former Dariusz Iwaneczko, former director of the Krasiczyński Castle - Janusz Czarski, several city and county councilors, as well as many former members of the Przemysl Citizens' Committee "Solidarity" from the city and county.
In his speech Marshal Kuchciński recalled the most important events of 2011, including the parliamentary elections, which once again brought success to the candidates of Law and Justice in Podkarpacie. The main mass media, which openly took pro-government positions with a clear lack of objectivity, largely contributed to the lack of victory for the most important opposition party nationwide. Some media were even blatantly dishonest, criticizing the Law and Justice party rather than the Civic Platform party, which has been in power for four years, for the current bad situation in the education and health services. Media bias was also evident in our region.
The Speaker expressed his concern that in 2012 the inhabitants of our country will be more and more affected by rising prices caused by the government's increasing tax burdens. This policy will also have a negative impact on the activities of businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, and thus will further deteriorate the situation of local governments, which will be forced to increase local fees, because the subsidies from the state budget for statutory tasks, such as education, are insufficient.
The Law and Justice party will warn the government camp against these negative consequences. Among other things, it will postulate - in cooperation with local governments - the extension of the visa-free border traffic zone with Ukraine to 50 kilometers, as well as the return to the plans for the construction of a road border crossing in Malhowice near Przemyśl.
Marshal Kuchciński, remembering the tragic Smolensk catastrophe, the biggest since the war, appealed for a dignified commemoration of the victims, including the prominent representatives of the Podkarpacie region. He appealed for a more decisive demand for the clarification of the circumstances in which the catastrophe happened - and these circumstances are becoming more and more controversial. Concluding his speech, he wished Law and Justice members to focus on active organizational work this year in order to best prepare for the upcoming elections, both local and parliamentary.
Further speeches were made by, among others, Chairman Andrzej Buczek, who appealed against the planned liquidation of the PGE power district in Przemyśl, which would result in the loss of more jobs in this area. Provincial councilor Stanislaw Bajda - as a longtime teacher - raised the alarm on the constantly deteriorating situation in Polish education and the degradation of government educational programs that consciously give up on patriotic education of Polish youth; and finally, Senator Andrzej Matusiewicz, who among other things, described his efforts to enforce the legal norms that had been adopted by the Parliament but not implemented.
