Opposition Says Lawmakers Blocking Polish Parliament to Stay Until January 11

WARSAW (Sputnik) — The lawmakers from the opposition Polish parties, who have been blocking the parliament for three days in a row since they took the podium at the Sejm, the lower house, on Friday, will remain in place until January 11, Grzegorz Schetyna, the leader of country's largest opposition party Civic Platform (PO) said Monday.

"We will not leave Sejm meeting room, the PO lawmakers will be here until January 11, and perhaps further," Schetyna said as quoted by Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

On Sunday, the opposition said that they planned to continue the protest until Tuesday.

On Saturday, demonstrators protested in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw in what became the biggest political standoff between the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) and several opposition groups. Thousands of people gathered in support of PO lawmakers who disrupted the parliamentary session a day earlier in protest of a decision to restrict media access to the Sejm.

The new media restrictions would allow only a limited number of TV stations in Poland to record parliamentary sessions starting next year.