Polish government crisis may trigger early elections

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is facing turmoil after having sacked his Agriculture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Andrzeij Lepper, due to corruption allegations.

“Andrzeij Lepper is under suspicion and this is sufficient reason to ask him to leave the cabinet,” the prime minister stated on 9 July 2007. The coalition break-up came after the Anti-Corruption Bureau had arrested two officials from the agriculture ministry on corruption charges. 

Lepper subsequently announced that his rural-based and nationalistic Self Defence Party (Samoobrona) would leave the governing coalition with Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party and the right-wing League of Polish Families. He told Polish TV: “Self Defence is leaving the government. We are not going to participate in this sort of government. The coalition is finished.”

This is the second time that Lepper has left his post, after having been sacked in a dispute with the prime minister during 2006 but then joining the cabinet again shortly after.

Without the 46 seats of the Self Defence Party, the Kaczynski government would  be left with around 203 seats, losing its majority in the 460-strong parliament, the Seijm.

The radical Self Defence party will convene today (10 July) to decide whether to continue the coalition or go into opposition, which may trigger early Autumn elections  if the government is unable to form a new majority.

Prime Minister Kaczynski has ruled out the possibility of continuing with a minority government. He said: “We will be oriented toward the election solution, because a helpless government would not be in the interests of the country.”

Meanwhile, Sports Minister Tomasz Lipiec, a member of Kazcynski’s Law and Justice Party, resigned due to corruption allegations. Lipiec was in charge of the preparations for the Euro2012 football tournament

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