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UPDATE: President backs new rules to help Polish ex-oppositionists

20.04.2021 16:44
Poland's president on Tuesday signed into law rules that help ex-oppositionists who lost out financially because they were targeted by the country's former communist authorities.
President Andrzej Duda.
President Andrzej Duda. Photo: PAP/Andrzej Lange

President Andrzej Duda praised opponents of the communist regime, saying: "It is thanks to their hard effort, their suffering, their struggle, and of course that of their loved ones, that we can enjoy freedom today."

Many oppositionists were prevented by Poland's communist-era authorities from working in their profession, and often had to take up jobs with a lower salary.

Years later, they found themselves with lower retirement and disability benefits than they would otherwise had received, public broadcaster Polish Radio's IAR news agency reported.

Under the new rules greenlighted by Duda, former oppositionists will be entitled to state pensions or disability pay-outs of PLN 2,400 (some USD 635, EUR 530) a month.

Poland's communist regime collapsed in 1989, but its more than four decades of totalitarian rule still cast a long shadow over the country.

(pk)