“My first decision as president will be a talk with the government about the tax-free threshold so that it happens straight away – if not, I’ll table my own bill in August, because it simply has to be done,” the Warsaw mayor told voters at an open-air town-hall meeting in the central town of Kalisz.
“This is a solution that benefits every Pole," he added.
Asked to name his top three priorities, Trzaskowski listed affordable housing and judicial overhaul.
“I want a major program to help municipalities build social flats and expand cheap rentals," he said.
“We have judges of two kinds today; nobody knows if rulings are constitutional. A repair package must be passed as fast as possible," he told the gathering.
Social issues on the agenda
Trzaskowski said he would “do everything” to steer a bill liberalizing abortion through parliament and, if deputies balked, submit his own draft.
He also vowed to champion civil-partnership legislation, arguing that it was “abnormal” that long-term couples “can’t even visit each other in hospital.”
“All of us should have the same rights,” he said, adding that most Poles now back such regulations and "the issue affects mainly heterosexual couples."
The 52-year-old centrist repeated his opposition to the EU’s pending trade pact with the Mercosur bloc.
“The president must be an ambassador for Polish farmers, and I’ll fight to build a coalition in the European Parliament to block this deal,” he declared.
Skips rival’s debate, slams 'political set-ups'
Trzaskowski skipped a televised debate in the town of Końskie featuring his runoff rival Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the nationalist-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
“Others boast about stage-managed shows – we won’t do set-ups,” he told supporters, warning that a Nawrocki victory would see figures such as former state TV boss Jacek Kurski and ex-education minister Przemysław Czarnek return to power.
With Poland’s runoff presidential vote set for June 1, opinion surveys show a tight race between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki, who would replace two-term incumbent Andrzej Duda as the right-wing camp’s standard bearer.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP