The speaker of Poland's parliament tendered his resignation on Thursday after the opposition accused him of using government planes for personal travel, sparking a scandal as the country gears up for elections.
Marek Kuchcinski appears to have bowed to pressure from the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, to which he belongs, after it held late-night talks on Wednesday led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, its powerful leader.
Kuchcinski told reporters in Warsaw that he would "resign from the post of speaker of parliament tomorrow", but insisted that he had not broken any laws.
He had apologised on Monday as the allegations mounted against him but his refusal to step down triggered public uproar.
Kaczynski stood beside Kuchcinski on Thursday as he announced he was quitting.
"The speaker didn't break the law... but since a large part of the public is of a different opinion, then I can say that the speaker's decision is evidence of the attitude behind our slogan: listen to Poles, serve Poland," Kaczynski told reporters.
Kuchcinski, 63, formally 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 some two dozen flights.
The liberal opposition demanded Kuchcinski's resignation, saying most of the flights took place over the weekend between the capital Warsaw and the region of Rzeszow, where the lawmaker is from.
Election favourites
Kuchcinski admitted that in one case his wife took a government plane without him.
He vowed to contribute 28,000 zloty (€6,500) to a fund for modernising 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.
Despite the uproar over Kuchcinski and allegations that other PiS-appointed or allied public officials have misused public funds, the party is set to win the October 13 general election, opinion polls suggest.
The PiS is outpacing the splintered centrist and leftist opposition thanks to generous social spending, tax exemptions for workers under 26 as well as a highly divisive anti-LGBT crusade.
LGBT+ rights became a hot-button issue in the staunchly Catholic EU country after Kaczynski dubbed them a "threat" to society in April and put the issue high on his party's campaign agenda.