Shouts of “down with communism” attempted to drown out proceedings in the Polish parliament on Tuesday as the house voted to elect a new speaker, who detractors allege harbours unconstitutionally hard-line left-wing views.

New Left Party parliamentarian Włodzimierz Czarzasty was elected as the new speaker of the Polish lower house (Sejm) on Tuesday afternoon with the support of a coalition of left-wing and centrist parties including the government’s Civic Platform party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The election was opposed by right-wing parties including the Law and Justice (PiS) faction, presently out of power but a major player in post-Cold War Polish politics. As Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski took the podium to propose Czarzasty’s candidacy, praising what he described as

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