Poland's ruling party signs new coalition deal with partners

The three parties in Poland’s conservative government have signed a new coalition agreement, putting aside disagreements sparked by a power struggle

Poland Politics (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The three parties in Poland's conservative coalition government signed a new coalition agreement on Saturday, putting aside disagreements sparked by a power struggle.

However, they gave no details about the agreement and took no questions from journalists, leaving lingering uncertainty about how the Cabinet will look in practice after an expected reshuffle.

Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of the senior party, Law and Justice told reporters in Warsaw that he and the leaders of two junior parties reached an agreement that would allow them to govern together for three more years, until the next scheduled general election.

Amid the crisis, Law and Justice had warned it might try to govern without them, as a minority government, or even call for early elections.

But on Saturday Kaczyński declared: “We have a good future ahead of us."

He signed the deal alongside the the hard-line justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, who heads a right-wing party, United Poland, and Jarosław Gowin, leader of the more moderate conservative group, Agreement.

Gowin said that pluralism had always been the strength of the coalition “but also internal unity.”

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki who was also present, expressed satisfaction that unity and stability were being preserved.

Tensions have been building for some time in the coalition over ideological issues as Ziobro has pursued a hard line against LGBT rights and threatened to withdraw Poland from an international convention protecting women from domestic violence.

Polish political commentators say there’s also a power struggle between Ziobro, 50, and Morawiecki, 52, for eventual control of Poland’s political right as Kaczyński, who is 71, prepares to withdraw from front-line politics.

Kaczyński did not address claims made days earlier that he would also formally join the government as a deputy prime minister.