WARSAW – The junior partner in Poland’s coalition government declined yesterday to back the main ruling party’s candidate in the presidential election, but a leading lawmaker said the decision did not threaten the coalition.
The small Peasants’ Party (PSL) said it had decided against endorsing either Bronislaw Komorowski of the ruling pro-business Civic Platform (PO) or Jaroslaw Kaczynski of the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) in the July 4th run-off vote.
“We want to let our supporters vote on their own. They need to make their own decision ,” PSL leader Waldemar Pawlak, who is also Poland’s economy minister and deputy PM, said.
Mr Pawlak said both candidates had expressed support for PSL priorities such as cutting taxes for the lower paid and ensuring that Poland’s farmers benefited as much as possible from the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.
Mr Pawlak was PSL’s own candidate in the first round of the election last Sunday but won less than 2 per cent of the vote.
Mr Komorowski won the first round by just five points.
PO lawmaker Andrzej Halicki, head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, played down Mr Pawlak’s announcement. “The coalition is not in danger,” he told Polsat television, adding that he thought PSL voters would switch to Mr Komorowski.
Some analysts expressed surprise at Mr Pawlak’s decision.
“He is breaking the rules. He is a member of the coalition so he should really give his support to Komorowski,” said Iwona Jakubowska-Branicka, a sociologist at Warsaw University.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who heads PO, said earlier this week he expected the coalition to last until the end of this parliamentary mandate next year and that he hoped his party and PSL would co-operate in the new parliament too. – (Reuters)