POLAND:Poland's bitterly divided coalition government could rise from the dead for a second time as junior coalition members argued yesterday over whether to stay in office or walk out in support of their leader, who has been linked to a corruption investigation.
Andrzej Lepper, head of the left-wing populist Self Defence Party, was fired as deputy prime minister and agriculture leader on Monday after his name allegedly surfaced in a corruption investigation involving land rezoning.
After backing their leader's decision on Monday to leave office, party members appeared to backtrack yesterday and said they would put off making a final decision until Friday.
Mr Lepper said that investigators had until then to produce concrete evidence of his alleged involvement in the bribery affair, believed to involve "several million" zloty.
The hesitation by Self Defence MPs to walk out of office prompted speculation that they are being wooed by the larger Law and Justice Party (PiS) of prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who made the allegations against Mr Lepper.
Defections to PiS would boost Mr Kaczynski's parliamentary majority and prevent a general election which, at present, all government parties appear keen to avoid. Recent polls show that the two smaller coalition partners - Self Defence and the ultra-conservative League of Polish Families - would have difficulty clearing the 5 per cent electoral hurdle to make it into the next parliament. PiS, meanwhile, has fallen behind the opposition liberal Civic Platform (PO); defectors from Self Defence could give it the edge once more.
"I can see Kaczynski lasting until 2009," said Pawel Swieboda of the Centre for European Strategy. "I'd expect him to stay on in a minority government that doesn't attempt to do anything more than a minimum programme until then, for instance preparing for the European soccer championship in 2012." But the Kaczynski twins, who came to power in 2005 on a strict anti-corruption platform, have political problems of their own.
Their sports minister resigned on Monday after becoming entangled in another corruption investigation, while president Lech Kaczynski's own sports adviser faces arrest after allegations linking him to a kilogram of cocaine.
On top of all this is a very public row with the head of the ultra-Catholic Radio Maryja, Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk. His station, a potent mix of politics and prayers with a reported three million listeners, was an important source of political support for the twins in the 2005 general election.
By switching his political loyalties to the Kaczynski brothers ahead of the poll, Fr Rydzyk guaranteed their party a decisive share of the rural Polish vote.
The courtship soon came to an acrimonious end when Fr Rydzyk realised the twins had no intention of promoting his ultra-Catholic political agenda in office, in particular his demand to tighten up Poland's already restrictive abortion laws.
On Monday, Wprost published a recording transcript of Fr Rydzyk at a closed-door conference allegedly calling Poland's first lady a "witch" because of her support for limited abortion.
"The first lady with this euthanasia . . . you witch, I'll let you have it. If you want to kill people, do it to yourself first," he says.
On the tape he also attacks her husband, President Kaczynski, as a "fraudster" who is in the pockets of the "Jewish lobby".
Fr Rydzyk said yesterday he had "no intention to insult the president and his wife". "This has been blown out of proportion," he said, "but the truth needs to be told."