Founder leaves Poland's Nowoczesna party
The founder and former leader of the Nowoczesna opposition party, Ryszard Petru, announced on Friday that he was leaving the party. "Nowoczesna is my own child that is following its own path today," he said.
Petru, who is an economist, left Poland's second biggest opposition party three years after it was founded in the run-up to the 2015 parliamentary election.
"I am aware that unfortunately Nowoczesna is not offering to the voters what it promised three years ago," the former leader also said.
Petru was unseated as the party chairman by one of his chief aides and Nowoczesna caucus head, Katarzyna Lubnauer, after a November 2017 vote. A few of Nowoczesna's high-profile MPs have also left the party in recent days.
Petru gave his assurance he was not going to found a new political party, at least not until the local elections scheduled for this autumn.
He said his main goal was to "prepare a counter programme offer for the 2019 parliamentary vote," as he referred to an election programme that could become an alternative to the ruling social-conservative party, Law and Justice. (PAP)
jd/ej
