Opposition protests as Polish Senate resumes sitting after election

Senators representing Poland's main opposition party Civic Platform (PO) urged the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) not to resume a Senate sitting in the upper house's old line-up after the October 13 parliamentary ballot, warning the move would spell trouble. The Senate reconvened on Thursday to finish the session it interrupted on September 26, more than two-weeks before the Oct. 13 parliamentary elections in which PiS lost its absolute majority in the upper house. On Wednesday evening the Sejm (lower house) concluded its similarly-interrupted session, the final one in its 2015-2019 term of office. Bogdan Klich, the leader of PO's Senate caucus, said reinstating a session after the election runs counter to existing practice and may in the future be used for "bad intentions and bad purposes." Klich recalled that, under the Polish constitution, the introduction of any amendment to the bills that have already been passed by the Sejm would necessitate another session to be held by the lower house.