Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty announced yesterday that he had signed an order banning the sale of alcoholic beverages in buildings and areas managed by the Chancellery of the Sejm.
“It is difficult to inform society about the need to ban (the sale of alcohol) at petrol stations, about the need to ban the sale of alcohol at night, without setting an example from the parliament, i.e., from those who will pass such a law,” he explained, according to Do Rzeczy.
The order will come into effect on Monday, Nov. 24, right in time for Christmas festivities.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński agreed with the Speaker, although he said this was merely his personal opinion. He also warned that the so-called “tonic without a cap” could return.
“Just remember that there is a risk that the so-called tonic without the cap will come back,” said the PiS MP.
“When we came to the parliament, at least the sale of vodka (…) was banned by (Wojciech) Jaruzelski, because those supposed members of parliament from those communist parties drank terribly,” he recalled.
Kaczyński explained that parliamentarians then tried to circumvent the ban by ordering a bottle of tonic without its cap, i.e., vodka in a tonic bottle.
“There was some social engineering on the part of the representatives of communist formations to make friends with the people from the NSZZ ‘Solidarność’ trade union, who came in, sat down at the tables and immediately ordered the so-called tonic without a cap from the waitresses, to start with vodka,” he said, adding that he believed the Speaker today would somehow prevent this from happening.
Kaczyński also agreed with the changes to MPs’ mileage allowances that the new Speaker of the Sejm plans to introduce, expected to come into force this January.
Czarzasty stated that he does not agree that anything in this matter should be unclear in the public’s opinion and emphasized that each MP has the potential to spend PLN 3,000 (€700) per month on mileage allowances.
“People have questions about what this money was spent on,“ he added, and Polish society has the right to transparency.
