Individual parties of the governing coalition are of a different opinion on the bill on the protection of animal rights and the so-called COVID-19 bill which guarantees impunity for government officials for decisions made during the pandemic. As a result of the dispute, leading Law and Justice politicians talk about a minority government and early elections, treating the United Poland as their opponent. On the other hand, United Poland politicians said that the dismissal of Zbigniew Ziobro means a definitive disintegration of the coalition and the elections.
The talks of the governing coalition have been suspended. The leader of the Law and Justice party, Jarosław Kaczyński called MPs of the Agreement and the United Poland parties ‘ex-coalition partners’. Today, Ryszard Terlecki, deputy speaker of the Sejm said that the Law and Justice party will inform the public about the matter of the elections on Monday. Politicians of the Law and Justice party, however, said that the Polish government is a minority government.
“I respect Mr. Marek Suski, but in my opinion we are all ruled by emotion, and we’ll make it to the year 2023 in order to protect Poland from the European Union lobby.” commented Janusz Kowalski from the United Poland party.
38 MPs from the United Right and the entire Confederation party are against the bill on the protection of animal rights. 4 MPs from the Civic Coalition, 22 from the Kukiz’15 movement, and everyone from the Left are for the bill.
“We are very happy that the bill has passed. When it comes to the future of the United Right, well, it is clear that Jarosław Kaczyński cannot be sure of what is going to happen next.” said Maciej Konieczny from the Left party.
All MPs from the United Poland voted against the bill, which means that the current Minister of Justice, and a small part of MPs from the Law and Justice party may lose their positions. Yesterday, Borys Budka, leader of the Civic Coalition wanted to put forward a vote of confidence for Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. According to Budka, early elections would be a great chance for the Civic Coalition to return to power.
Agreement party MPs abstained from voting. Today, Marek Suski said that Zbigniew Ziobro may lose his position as Minister of Justice.
“The dispute is not about the animal rights bill or the COVID-19 bill. It is about Jarosław Kaczyński’s leadership. The dispute is about whether Kaczyński is going to hold his position as leader or retire.” stated columnist Rafał Ziemkiewicz.
The impunity bill is not going to be voted on by the Sejm for now.