Poland

Polish government confusion continues

Classified Polnews

Warsaw, Poland April 23, 2006 Confusion about the status of a pending coalition between competing Polish political parties continues to dominate the news in Poland. The bickering, complaining, and in fighting eat at the time of leading Polish politicians so that they spend their time more concerned with forming a coalition than running the government.

The ruling minority political party, Law and Justice, had initially predicted that it would form a coalition before Easter. It then predicted it would form a coalition before the end of last week. It now predicts a coalition will be formed by the end of next week.

But regardless of the predictions of the Law and Justice political party, it only appears that the negotiations are going in circles. It has gotten to the point that Andrzej Lepper, leader of the political party Samoobrona, said in a televised press conference that if Law and Justice Party could not form a coalition this week the government should resign and new elections should be held.

The Leader of the Peasants' Party, Pawlak, said that he did not see how a coalition could be formed because a coalition had to be built on trust and cooperation. But as stands the parties that are considering a coalition seem to be more interested in fighting among themselves rather than coming up with a common plan for the country.

The Polish public is becoming concerned with what is going on and public opinion polls are showing that they are becoming disenchanted with the Kaczynski brothers, one of whom is the President and the other the leader of the political party Law and Justice. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of political party Law and Justice, has seen his popularity rating dropped to 38%. He is now the second most distrusted politician in Poland. Lech Kaczynski, the President of Poland, has also seen a drop in his popularity to 48%. This is lowest popularity rating for the length of time in office of any Polish president since 1989.

The credibility of the Law and Justice Party hangs in the balance of being able to form a coalition. The minority parties see this and are taking it as an opportunity for them to force extreme demands on the Law and Justice Party.

So as it stands the country remains with an ineffective minority government and with no firm plan for the future of this government.