POLAND: Deadlock in Polish parliament on first session after holiday with early elections expected

The Polish parliament hit a deadlock early on Wednesday (August 22) with opposition parties demanding the removal of the house speaker and the ruling conservatives accusing their foes of trying to prevent early elections. Poland is expected to hold polls two years early after the collapse of the coalition between Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's conservatives, far-right League of Polish Families and rural-based Self-Defence party. Parliament is due to vote to shorten its term early next month and when it does so, elections must take place within 45 days. But before this happens, most deputies in parliament want to set up a probe to look into accusations the ruling Kaczynski twins used secret services to undermine the opposition. The Kaczynski's Law and Justice party (PiS) has rejected such charges and says setting up the commission would compromise its anti-corruption investigations. It wants elections to take place first and the party's lower house speaker, Ludwik Dorn, said he would not allow a vote on it, prompting opposition calls for his dismissal. In order to shorten parliament's term, 307 out of 460 deputies must vote in favour, while Law and Justice and the main centre-right opposition party the Civic Platform (PO), have 281 parliamentarians. "It would be better for Poland if the parliament dissolved itself. It would be worse to dismiss the government because this will last longer which means that Mr. Jaroslaw Kaczynski will be in power longer. I would rather the parliament dissolves on its own law than have Jaroslaw Kaczynski resolve the matter, because I suspect he will be doing it in such a way to be in power longer," Bronislaw Komorowski, a leading PO deputy, told Reuters. Romand Giertych, leader of nationalist League of Polish Families and former deputy prime minister proposed a vote to remove the speaker, but Dorn refused to allow it. Dorn and the ruling rightists accuse the opposition, especially the parties fearing they may not be voted back, of trying to delay elections. "I think there will be elections. You know for some elections are an opportunity, for others they are a nightmare. Some people are delving through murky water and some of them are desperate. You know who I am talking about," Law and Justice MP Tadeusz Cymanski referring to the position of former coalition partners League of Polish Families and Self Defence, who lost a majority of their electorate, mostly to PiS.

ITN Source | August 23, 2007

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