The head of the largest opposition party in Poland has announced that MPs will occupy parliament until Tuesday after a night of protests as the country faced a political crisis.

The protests were slammed by Prime Minister Beata Szydło. "Today, at the heart of the business of many politicians is their willingness to brawl,” she said during an event in Kraków, southern Poland.

Government officials called the protests "scandalous", while Grzegorz Schetyna, the head of the Civic Platform (PO) party, said the dozens of MPs who have occupied the plenary hall of the parliament building in Warsaw will “stay there until Tuesday, 20 December”.

The MPs from the opposition PO and Nowoczesna parties spent the night in a sit-in protest following a controversial budget vote late on Friday.

The sit-in protest was held after commotion during a plenary session on Friday when Michał Szczerba, a PO deputy, was excluded from debate after speaking out about planned new rules on journalists’ access to parliament.

Opposition questions legality of vote

Following a recess lasting several hours, Speaker Marek Kuchciński, from PiS, resumed the session of parliament at an alternative sitting in an ancillary room in the building.

In a hasty ballot, PiS and a handful of opposition deputies voted through the 2017 budget, as well as a bill to lower the pensions of communist-era police and army forces.

The vote was held by a raising of hands, and deputies from PO and Nowoczesna questioned whether a quorum – the minimum number of MPs needed to vote – was met.

PO leader Schetyna has called for a second vote on the budget.

'Scandalous' behaviour by opposition

Interior Minister Mariusz Błaszczak was quoted by the public TVP broadcaster as saying that the events on Friday were “scandalous” and were organised merely because “the opposition cannot come to terms with the result of the elections”.

PiS came to power in October last year, and has introduced sweeping changes to the country’s legal framework, judiciary and media.

Friday’s protests inside and outside parliament were instigated by a planned tightening of media access to parliament, restricting most TV journalists to a separate space a short distance away from the main building.

PiS MPs said the new rules would be similar to those in many other parliaments around the world.

On Saturday, media reports said that Speaker Kuchciński had cancelled all press passes to all journalists, barring them from entering parliament.

Protests

Between Friday and Saturday, a rally called by the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD) movement gathered outside the parliament building, with a crowd of Warsaw residents chanting their support for the MPs protesting inside.

Before the break of dawn on Saturday, the protesters tried to stop PiS deputies from leaving the building. Police who were called in to watch over the protest blocked off the street leading out of parliament, allowing the MPs to drive away.

In the commotion which ensued, several protesters were thrown to the ground by police, and a number of people were detained, according to KOD. Police said there there had been no reports of anyone being injured and that no protestors had lodged complaints against police officers.

The events on Friday night have been described by experts as a landmark event in recent Polish history. Former NATO Secretary General and the EU's High Representative for Security & Foreign Policy, Javier Solana, said this is “the most important crisis in years”.

Friday marked the 35th anniversary of the Wujek mine massacre, when communist-era police cracked down on protesting miners, leading to the death of nine men. (rg/pk)