Poland: Danger Stalks The Kaczynski Government
Classified Polnews
The Government of Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski faces dangers from within and without. Not only is his Coalition Government being threatened again with a junior coalition partner leaving, but his Former Prime Minister may be ready to form a new party with other powerful politicians.
Poland
The immediate threat comes from Andrzej Lepper, leader of coalition partner political party Samoobrona. He is demanding about 300 million zloty in intervention payments to support the Polish livestock industry. His terms are simple. If the Prime Minister does not have the payments made, there will be no coalition.
Lepper will probably get what he wants. Even though his party, Law and Justice, leads in the election polls, he does not want to face elections. He does not have enough support to win a majority and he could possibly lose position.
And there is another danger that he could face in new elections. That is the danger of a new political party headed by his former Prime Minister Kaszimierz Marcinkiewicz taking the Kaczynski Government down. For Background See Former Polish Prime Minister's choice - independence or subservience
Two days ago Jan Rokita of the Civic Platform published a plan for his party. But he had not discussed it with his full party leadership. He made the plan with a group of 20 others.
Marcinkiwicz met with Rokita several days ago and published on his blog that he and Rokita agreed 99 percent.
Rokita has already met with the Kaczynskis and rejected their offers to join them. He said that he does not agree with the policies of the Kaczynski Government. So it would seem that Marcinkiewicz does not either.
Rokita’s relationship with his own Party has been strained. His solo effort on making a plan for the Civic Platform has made matters worse, in spite of Party Leader Donald Tusks comment, “I have been working with him for many years and know that the nature of a solo performer prevails in him.”
Neither Kaczynski nor Tusk have been able to rally a commanding lead in the election polls.
But Marcinkiewicz is Poland’s most popular politician and a recent poll showed that 63% of the people would vote for him.
Should Rokita and Marcinkiewicz finally join forces, both the Law And Justice and Civic Platform Parties will go by the wayside and be relegated to possible junior partners in a coalition, if that even becomes necessary.
Kaczynski has to feed Lepper his demands to stay in power now. And he has to be cautious in his dealing with Marcinkiewicz. If he does not, he may be history
