Tensions have once again emerged in Poland’s national-conservative government, as the leader of a junior coalition partner has warned that that they will not remain “at any cost” amid tension over the firing of a deputy minister from his party and a dispute over planned tax increases.
“The United Right [ruling coalition] is of great value and worth continuing, but not at at any cost, and certainly not at the cost of radically increased taxes for businesses and the middle class,” said Jarosław Gowin, who serves as deputy prime minister and development minister.
His Agreement (Porozumienie) party – the most moderate and pro-business faction in the coalition – will hold a meeting tomorrow to decide on a “reaction” to the firing this week of deputy development minister Anna Kornecka.
Kornecka, who is also from Agreement, has previously criticised the government’s flagship “Polish Deal” stimulus and tax reform programme, despite the fact that she is supposed to be working on implementing it. Gowin himself warned last month that the scheme would “hit millions of hard-working Poles” with higher taxes.
This week, government spokesman Piotr Müller announced that Kornecka had been dismissed from her position by the prime minister due to the “unsatisfactory pace of [her] work on key projects of the Polish Deal”.
Wchodząc do rządu miałam jeden cel: bronić polskich przedsiębiorców. Nie ma zgody na drastyczne podnoszenie dla nich podatków i danin. Nie żałuję, że zapłaciłam za to dymisją. Dalej będę pracować na rzecz tych, dzięki którym Polska się rozwija-pracować tak, jak całe Porozumienie.
— Anna Kornecka (@KorneckaAnna) August 4, 2021
Responding to the news of Kornecka’s dismissal, Gowin said that a board meeting of his party on Saturday would decide “how to address this fact, and above all how to address the reasons for this departure”, reports Interia.
He defended his deputy, saying that her views are “fully consistent with what I believe”. Gowin also confirmed that he had not been consulted in advance over her dismissal by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who is from the Law and Justice (PiS) party that is the largest member of the ruling coalition.
“This decision violates the provisions of the coalition agreement [and] will not be left without a reaction,” warned Gowin, quoted by Onet.
The same media outlet cited an anonymous senior figure from Agreement saying that “a lot will happen this weekend”, including a “decision on whether, and under what conditions, we are prepared to continue cooperation with the United Right”.
However, other sources have reported that Gowin would struggle to persuade all of his MPs to join him in any potential departure from the ruling coalition. Some have “received offers from PiS” to defect, reports Onet.
The United Right, which has been in power since late 2015, has been beset by internal conflicts in recent times. Gowin himself temporarily quit the government last year in a successful attempt to force PiS to abandon plans to organise presidential elections by post during the pandemic.
More recently, PiS’s second junior coalition partner, the hard-right United Poland (Solidarna Polska), rebelled against the government by refusing to vote in favour of ratifying the European Union’s coronavirus recovery fund.
For the umpteenth time, Polish media are reporting that PiS's ruling coalition may soon fall apart, with Gowin's Agreement party (or at least some of its MPs) ready to walk out. Tensions in the coalition have grown since the minor parties increased their number of MPs in 2019.
— Stanley Bill (@StanleySBill) August 5, 2021
Main image credit: Anna Kornecka/Twitter
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
