Polish president refers gov't budget to top court over legality "doubts"

Warsaw [Poland], February 1: Polish President Andrzej Duda sent Wednesday the budget for the year 2024 to the Constitutional Tribunal for review "due to doubts regarding the regularity of the voting procedure of the aforementioned bill."
Duda's office said the president signed the budget but decided to send it to the Constitutional Tribunal to check whether it is compliant with the constitution as two lawmakers of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party had been unable to take part in the votes on it.
"Similar actions will be taken by the President of the Republic of Poland each time when members of parliament resulting from general elections are prevented from performing their duties," said the presidential office.
Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik from PiS were convicted of abuse of power in December last year and lost their seats in parliament. But they were pardoned by Duda, a PiS ally, last week.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Tuesday of a snap election if the budget is blocked by Duda. After Duda signed the budget, Tusk said sending the signed bill to the Constitutional Tribunal wouldn't change anything.
"The budget is approved and that was the goal. The rest doesn't matter. People will get the money, nothing will stop it now," Tusk said on the social media platform X.
The budget for 2024 forecasts a deficit of no more than 184 billion Polish zloty (45.94 billion U.S. dollars), with a deficit of European funds set at 32.5 billion zloty. The projected sectoral finance deficit, according to EU methodology, will amount to 5.1 percent of the country's GDP this year. (1 zloty = 0.25 U.S. dollar)
Source: Xinhua