Jarosław Kaczyński, who is not prime minister despite leading the biggest party in Poland’s ruling conservative coalition, is poised to take on a new role as the head of a security committee, Ryszard Terlecki, a senior lawmaker with Law and Justice (PiS), told reporters.
"That's the plan" and "there's every indication that this is indeed what will happen," Terlecki, who heads his party's parliamentary caucus, said when approached by reporters in the lower house on Thursday morning.
Ryszard Terlecki, a senior politician and lawmaker with Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, briefs reporters outside the party's Warsaw headquarters earlier this month. Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak
The move, if it finally goes ahead, will be a surprise development in a political crisis that, at one point, threatened to break up Poland’s conservative coalition and result in a minority government or early elections.
Kaczyński and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the head of a smaller grouping that is part of the government, held talks on Wednesday evening in Warsaw to discuss the future of the conservative coalition, which has ruled the country since 2015.
The United Right coalition, which is headed by Law and Justice and also comprises Ziobro’s strongly conservative Solidarna Polska party and the Porozumienie (Agreement) grouping, secured a second term in power in a parliamentary ballot on October 13.
Tensions between three allies spilled over after the junior partners in the coalition last week refused to support an animal rights bill strongly backed by Kaczyński.
Ryszard Terlecki, a senior lawmaker with Law and Justice, on Friday warned that a minority government or early elections in Poland could not be ruled out.
He said at the time: "At the moment the situation is such that the coalition is practically nonexistent.”
Without lawmakers from its two junior coalition partners, Law and Justice would not have a majority in Poland’s lower house.
(gs-pk)
Source: PAP