The leaders of the Communist Party shared their plans for the autumn session of the State Duma

During the autumn session of parliament, deputies from the Communist Party plan to submit draft Labor and Tax Codes to the State Duma, and also hope to consider the Electoral Code introduced in February. This was announced at a press conference on Tuesday by the leaders of the party. The communists also noted with optimism that their proposals were being heeded in the government. The expert believes that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation offers large-scale, but obviously impassable initiatives for the sake of program positioning and attracting attention.

Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and its faction in the State Duma, began his speech at the TASS press center with a traditional call to the government’s financial bloc to change its economic course and heed the recommendations of the communists who developed the anti-crisis “development budget”. They propose to form this budget through the adoption of 12 bills already submitted by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation or ready to be submitted.

According to Dmitry Novikov, Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Communists have reasons for optimism in this sense, since the anti-crisis program of the party “is rapidly proving its salvific character for Russia in the current conditions,” and even the government began to listen to the proposals of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. “Before the government’s report, our entire team met with (the prime minister.— “b”) Mikhail Mishustin, his deputies, key ministers,” the communist recalled. “Many intonations have changed for the better. There are topics that previously major officials did not even undertake to discuss. For example, they understood that it was difficult to discuss the topic of nationalization with us, and they brushed it aside. Now it turned out that at the present time the nature of threats is such that the role of the state cannot be reduced. Finally, the ministers, headed by the prime minister, are ready to discuss this with us.”

First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee Yuri Afonin, in turn, recalled the draft Electoral Code, which was submitted in February and, as expected by the party, can be considered in the autumn session.

In it, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, in particular, proposes to abandon multi-day and electronic voting, cancel the possibility of expressing will in the adjacent territories, ban the practice of “locomotives”, remove the municipal filter in gubernatorial elections and introduce the principle of the immutability of the regulatory framework during the election campaign.

According to Mr. Afonin, if this code had been adopted before the current elections, “a number of major scandals could have been avoided.” At the same time, he admitted that in 2023 the level of administrative pressure on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is “slightly less” than in previous years, although it was not without problems. Among these, the communist called “preventing the election through the notorious municipal filter” of the candidate for governor of the Altai Territory, Maria Prusakova, and targeted attempts to remove the Communist Party from municipal campaigns: in the Arkhangelsk region, the list was defended, but in two cities of the Amur region, the Communist Party still remained without elections .

Yuri Afonin also said that one of the key initiatives that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will introduce to the Duma in the autumn session will be the draft Labor Code, developed by a team led by deputy Georgy Kamnev.

“This code will be aimed at the interests of working people, the development of the trade union movement, the provision of young people with their first job and a number of other social guarantees,” the communist promised. The project implies the expansion of the powers of trade unions, including fixing their mandatory participation in the discussion of wage cuts. In addition, the authors propose to introduce specialized labor courts to resolve labor disputes and add two dates to the list of non-working holidays: July 1 – Combat Veterans Day and November 7 – Great October Socialist Revolution Day.

Also, the Communists are going to submit a draft Tax Code, fixing the transition to a progressive scale of taxation.

It was developed by a group led by MP Mikhail Shchapov. “The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has repeatedly stated the need to move to a progressive scale so that the main taxes are paid by the super-rich and mining companies. And here, unfortunately, the main burden is on the ordinary population and our production workers,” Mr. Afonin explained.

Finally, the deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Maria Drobot, spoke about the proposal to provide free hot meals to schoolchildren up to the ninth grade (now only primary school students receive it). The Communist Party of the Russian Federation already introduced this initiative during the spring session, but the parliamentary majority did not support it. The Communists also propose to adopt a law on a large family, which establishes uniform measures to support it in all regions. It should be noted that last summer at the plenum of the Central Committee, the Communists also announced the preparation of a draft of a new Constitution, but this item has not yet been included in the plans for the autumn session.

Political scientist Konstantin Kalachev believes that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation offers such large-scale, but obviously impassable initiatives as draft codes, for the sake of programmatic positioning and creating informational occasions. “The theses of the program take the form of bills. There is something to justify to the voters, there is something to reproach other factions that did not support the bill. In the end, this is an informational occasion, ”the expert notes.

Ksenia Veretennikova