Poland

 

Early elections in Poland are threatened again

Classified Polnews

Warsaw, Poland June 28, 2006 In response to demands by coalition partner Andrzej Lepper, who heads the Samoobrona political party, the head of the ruling coalition party Law and Justice, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has once again threatened that unless he gets his way he will lead the country to new elections.

The current threat is a result of Andrzej Lepper demanding that the coalition agreement be amended and that his party being given positions in the Ministry of Security and in the Public Television Board. He has previously demanded positions and has been turned down by both Kaczynski and the Prime Minister.

But Lepper is not a man to be controlled and since he has gone public with his demands he is likely to continue to press very hard for this.

In order for new elections to be held, the Law and Justice Party will have to get the cooperation of the opposition party Civic Platform.

the results of an a election poll by gfk Polonia for the business daily newspaperRzeczpospolita which results were released today support percentages as:

Civic Platform 32

Law and Justice 25

SLD 6

Samoobrona 5

League of Polish Families 2

Even though the polls show that the Civic Platform is continually improving its position with the Polish voters it is not likely that the Civic Platform will agree to early elections now. In is reported that it is their intent to allow the public to get more and more tired of the political drama that surrounds the Law and Justice government. They feel that the longer the Law and Justice government is in place their popularity will continue to decrease and more people will turn to the Civic Platform in the fall elections and during any other subsequent elections.

There is no doubt that Andrzej Lepper likes his position as Deputy Prime Minister. It is doubtful that he would want to leave the coalition because he would then lose this very attractive position in the Government.

So it is likely that the government will continue with its internal turmoil and Andrzej Lepper making demands and trouble. And it may be that the Law and Justice Party may have to turn to Civic Platform to ask their cooperation to get some legislation passed.

As it stands, very few commentators feel that there will be early elections.

Classified Polnews