“There has not yet been any discussion among us about that [forming a new party], and the very fact that no such discussion has taken place is the clearest proof that we were genuinely taken aback by the extremely brutal way we were pushed out of Law and Justice,” former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday in an interview with TV Republika. He also firmly rejected claims that the split within PiS had been planned for a long time and identified the political groups with which he sees no possibility of future cooperation.
On Friday, Mateusz Morawiecki and a group of around 40 politicians left Law and Justice (PiS). Commenting on the developments, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said the situation was linked, on the one hand, to the former prime minister’s association and, on the other, to “a proposal made several weeks ago to divide our party.” Morawiecki, however, insists that he had advocated unity and that his group was ultimately “pushed out” of the party.
A new party?
The former prime minister appeared on TV Republika on Saturday. He said that during talks with PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński he had offered to give up all his positions within the party so that “no one could think this was in any way about personal ambition.”
Asked by journalist Adrian Klarenbach whether his group was ready to establish its own political party, Morawiecki replied:
“There has not yet been any discussion among us about this, and the fact that no such discussion has taken place is the clearest proof that we were genuinely surprised by the extremely brutal way we were pushed out of Law and Justice. We did not want this until the very end and fought until the very end for unity. I even wrote a letter to the party chairman and we proposed various declarations, all of which were rejected. The hand we extended in reconciliation was pushed away. What happens next week remains to be seen. At this point, we had no such plans.”
Klarenbach then referred to claims by journalist Wojciech Biedroń of wPolsce24, who alleged that Morawiecki’s faction had had everything prepared since March, including the appointment of a future parliamentary group leader.
The former prime minister dismissed the claims outright, calling them “such an absurd lie that it is embarrassing that any journalist at any television station would use something like that.”
“Just look at when the paperwork for the association was actually filed, only after the previous dispute in April, and when this strategy began to be implemented, only in May. So to claim that everything was ready back in March is complete nonsense. Let’s draw a veil over it,”
he said.
No cooperation with parties supporting the government
Morawiecki also denied reports that he had reached any understanding with the Polish People’s Party (PSL) or with Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the leader of Poland 2050.
“Not only have I reached no agreement, but I have not held any such talks and I have no intention of doing so. Anyone who today endorses and props up this government, even if they are only supporting it with the frailest of crutches, is not a partner for me. We are not conducting any such talks. (…) I believe these two parties share responsibility for the wrongdoing we are witnessing in Poland today.”
Asked why he had nevertheless debated with PSL leader Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Morawiecki replied:
“Why did I debate with Sławomir Mentzen? Why did I have several debates with Krzysztof Bosak? Why with Ms Pełczyńska-Nałęcz? Because you have to engage in debate and try to persuade their voters. That is the best way to convince the people who voted for them, by presenting arguments and winning them over through the strength of those arguments.”
He added that politicians from his political camp had consistently tried to appeal to “ordinary people who are not involved in politics but who care about the economy and geopolitics.”
“That is why you take part in debates. (…) Those debates helped convince some voters to return to us or not to leave us in the first place. Confederation and the Crown of the Polish Crown (KKP) were gaining support, while our main strategy, pushing even more radical slogans and attacking our own achievements, did not produce results. Yet PiS still managed to hold on to around 27 per cent support,”
Morawiecki concluded.