Word: sejm
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Last week, however, Deputies of the Opposition felt safe. Pilsudski was sick. They knew that he had been too ill to receive the King of Afghanistan six weeks ago (TIME, May 14), and had lain abed ever since, some said paralyzed. Therefore the Polish Sejm (Parliament) rang with furious denunciations of the Cabinet's Budget Bill. This time there seemed no hope that it could be saved by a sudden, dramatic appearance of National Hero Pilsudski...
Then, with the budget about to be voted down, came, as in Polish fairy tales, the surprise. A door behind the Tribune of the Sejm flew open. Once more the frayed field uniform, the old sword, the drooping ferocious mustachios: PILSUDSKI...
When balloting for the Senate was complete, Marshal Pilsudski was found to have an even greater plurality of supporters than in the Sejm. No communist senator was elected...
Results. Chosen were both a new Sejm (Chamber) and a new Senate. In the former Marshal Pilsudski obtained roughtly twice as many Deputies as are adherent to any other group, but even so his cohorts number not quite one-third of the Sejm as a whole. The great confusion of party lines made it difficult for even the Marshal to count his Deputies with exactness, but he claimed 150 out of a Sejm of 474. The only trend discernible among the other parties was a leftward shift which virtually undermined the formerly potent Nationalist bloc and slightly swelled the ranks...
Significance. When it is remembered that Marshal Pilsudski has carried on as Dictator since 1926, though never supported in the Sejm by anything like a working majority, the election of last week assumes its true insignificance. Politically, Poland is a loose conglomeration of irresolute entities, held together, for good or ill, by a National Military Hero. He remains, however, self-confessedly no statesman. The marvel is that Poland, once given the boon of a government which is at least stable, has forged ahead so rapidly in agriculture, industry and commerce. Pertinent is a report recently issued by Financial Advisor...