Andrzej Lepper
Former Minister Of Agriculture

Polish Coalition Endangered As Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Is Fired

Classified Polnews

Warsaw, Poland 9 July, 2007 Poland's controversial Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Andrzej Lepper, was fired before he could resign as he is implicated in a major corruption scandal.

After meeting with Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and agreeing to submit his resignation, Lepper was surprised by Kaczynski calling his brother and telling him to immediately dismiss Lepper.

The Government anti-corruption office had two men arrested for corruption in the reclassification of farmland.

In the process of the investigation Lepper was implicated.

Lepper says that he is innocent.

Lepper claims that eavesdropping was done on him.

Lepper says that he is sure that one hundred percent of his party members will leave the Government coalition.

He also says that he will never work with this Government again.

The Prime Minister's Law And Justice Party has recently prepared a bill that would prevent people who had final criminal judgements against them from serving in the Parliament. An exception had been carved out for Lepper by specifying that the crimes had to be those committed after the bill went into effect. And since Lepper's convictions are for crimes committed in the past, the bill would not affect him.

The question now is being asked if the bill will be rewritten.

Whether the Government will be forced into new elections is still speculation. But the circumstances of the firing and the timing seem to indicate that Kaczynski is ready for new elections.

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