Polish parliament speaker to resign over flights scandal

The Polish parliament speaker, Marek Kuchcinski has announced on Thursday that he would resign over the flights' scandal, according to media reports. Kuchcinski apologized Monday after the opposition said he had used government planes for personal travel, sparking a scandal as the country gears up for elections.

Kuchcinski, 63, the second most powerful politician according to the constitution, used government planes as well as military helicopters and aircraft around a hundred times over the last few years, according to documents released by the opposition and local media.

A key member of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has been in power since 2015, he was accompanied by family on 23 of the flights.

"I am aware that the public has taken a negative view of my behavior. That is why I'd like to apologize to everyone who took offense," Kuchcinski said. 

"At the same time I'd like to firmly stress that I acted in line with the law," he said, adding that a substantial number of the flights were related to his work as parliament speaker.

The liberal opposition has called for Kuchcinski to resign, saying most of the flights took place over the weekend between the capital Warsaw and the region of Rzeszow, where the lawmaker is from.

In a statement, Kuchcinski admitted that in one case his wife took a government plane without him. He promised to contribute 28,000 zloty (6,500 euros, USD 7,250) to a fund for modernizing the army to offset the cost of that flight.

Earlier he had said he gave a separate 15,000 zloty to charity to make up for the cost of family members on flights they took together.