Poland's lawmakers vote in 2024 budget but approval is still needed from pro-opposition president

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s lawmakers voted on Thursday to approve the key 2024 state budget but the draft still needs approval from President Andrzej Duda, who is allied with the right-wing opposition.

The budget also requires endorsement from the Senate and must be presented for Duda’s signing by Jan. 29 or the president could call early elections.

Observers say such a move would be unlikely even though Duda has repeatedly tangled with the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which is taking steps to reverse some of his predecessors' policies and is bringing some former officials to account. Two members of the previous government have been imprisoned.

Latest surveys show support growing for the pro-European Union coalition government and shrinking for the conservative Law and Justice party that lost power in October elections after eight years of rule.

The lower house or Sejm voted 240-191, with three abstentions, on Thursday to approve the bill, which the Senate will take up on Jan. 24.

Tusk's new pro-European Union government that took office last month had to work fast to have the budget ready in time.

It provides for government spending of up to 866,4 billion zlotys ($214 billion) and a deficit of up to 184 billion zlotys ($45 billion) or 5.1% of the gross domestic product..

Compared to the draft by the previous conservative government of the Law and Justice party, it gives more money to education and health care and less to the president’s office and various historical institutions — such as the National Remembrance Institute that investigates Nazi and communist crimes against Poles — that were linked to the previous right-wing government.

“It is a source of great satisfaction for me that indeed ... this budget is for the people,” Tusk said after the vote.