We’ll keep supporting government because there’s “no better option”, says junior coalition partner

The leader of a junior partner in Poland’s conservative ruling coalition says that his party will continue to support the government because there is no better alternative. The remarks come amid growing divisions within the governing camp and speculation over early elections.

Earlier this week, the eurosceptic United Poland (Solidarna Polska) rebelled by joining the far right in voting against ratification of the EU coronavirus recovery fund. That left its two coalition partners – Law and Justice (PiS) and Agreement (Porozumienie) – having to rely on opposition votes to push through the legislation.

Speaking to Polsat News, the leader of United Poland, Zbigniew Ziobro – who also serves as justice minister and prosecutor general – reiterated his party’s position that the fund will accelerate “the federalisation of the EU”. That is something United Poland had promised its voters it would oppose.

Asked how this position could be reconciled with remaining in coalition with parties that had supported the fund, Ziobro noted that the alternative – a government formed by opposition groups – would be even worse.

“Politics is the art of decision-making,” he said. “If we left this government, we would [instead] have a government [made up] of The Left, Civic Platform and PSL [the Polish People’s Party] – that is, one that wants to give Europe even more powers – and this would have far-reaching and irreversible consequences.”

“We will continue to support this government, because there is no better one,” concluded Ziobro, who last month accused the PiS prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, of “agreeing to the diktat of Brussels and Berlin” during negotiations over the recovery fund and EU budget.

Amid growing splits in the ruling camp – which date back over a year – the leaders of PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński, and Agreement, Jarosław Gowin, have recently discussed the possibility of calling early parliamentary elections, two years ahead of schedule.

“Sooner or later, some issues relating to [our] coalition agreement must find a solution, [because] otherwise they will be an unnecessary source of conflict,” Gowin – whose centre-right party is the most moderate of the three – told TVN24 this week in the wake of United Poland’s vote against the government.

Asked about early elections, Gowin said that “a better scenario for Poland would be to extinguish misunderstandings within the ruling camp”. But if that is not possible, “we will have to decide on early elections”.

United Poland yesterday continued its anti-EU rhetoric following an opinion issued by the European Court of Justice’s advocate general, Evgeni Tanchev. He found that Poland’s recently created disciplinary chamber for judges “is contrary to EU law”.

“We can see that the Brussels elites are trying to interfere with the sovereignty of Poland in the field of justice,” responded Sebastian Kaleta, a deputy justice minister and United Poland MP.

“We are dealing with a political theatre of double standards in Brussels and Luxembourg,” added Kaleta, who claimed that different rules are applied to Poland than to other member states.

Main image credit: Katarzyna Czerwińska / Kancelaria Senatu (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.