Polish President Andrzej Duda sent the 2024 budget to the Constitutional Court on Wednesday in the post-control mode to check its compliance with Poland’s Constitution. This decision was made due to doubts about the correctness of the adoption procedure, as two members of Parliament were unable to participate in the Sejm’s work on these acts.

The two members of Parliament include former Minister of the Interior in Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government Mariusz Kaminski, and one of his deputies, Maciej Wosik. Both were sentenced to two years in prison in December 2023 for abuse of power, which led to the loss of their seats in Parliament.

The deputies were convicted while investigating a corruption scandal that led to the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper and the collapse of the Law and Justice (PiS) government in 2007. The former head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, Kamiński, and three of his subordinates were found guilty in 2015, but President Andrzej Duda pardoned all four defendants and appointed Kamiński as minister.

In 2023, the Polish Supreme Court declared Duda’s 2015 pardon invalid because it was issued before Kaminsky and Vonsik’s final conviction. The case was then returned to the lower court, which found them guilty in December 2023 and sentenced them to two years in prison. The deputies were later pardoned again by President Andrzej Duda on January 24.

In response to Duda’s decision, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded on X (formerly Twitter), “The budget was signed and that was it. The rest doesn’t matter. The money will go to the people, nothing can stop it.”

The government’s 2024 budget forecasts funds to fulfill some of the new ruling coalition’s election promises, such as a 30 percent increase in teacher salaries and a 20 percent increase in other civil servants’ salaries. The budget deficit will be 184 billion zlotys (42.46 billion euros), compared to 164.8 billion (38.03 billion euros) planned by PiS. The projected deficit of sectoral finances, according to the EU methodology, will amount to 5.1 percent of the country’s GDP this year (1 zloty = 0.25 US dollars).

Tensions between the PiS party and the ruling coalition have been tense since the new coalition took power in late 2023. Since then, PiS has urged its supporters to protest against the ruling Civic Coalition and the two have repeatedly clashed over legislative and judicial reform efforts.