Tusk and PiS leader at odds over ruling coalition's merger plans
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski have clashed over Tusk's Civic Coalition (KO) decision to merge into a party of the same name two years ahead of the next parliamentary election.
The feud unfolded on Saturday, when the Civic Platform (PO), the Tusk-led centrist key governing party, held a convention to launch a process of uniting three political organisations from the governing KO — PO, the Polish Initiative and the Modern Party — into a new political force. Tusk said the newly-established party will carry the same name as the current ruling coalition — Civic Coalition.
Kaczynski, who chairs the socially concervative Law and Justice (PiS) party which currently stands in opposition to KO, wrote in a post on Saturday: "Law and Justice wants to change Poland for the good to enhance the life conditions of the Poles, while the Civic Platform (PO) changes the name, seeking ways to improve charts of the polls propagandistically. We're about Poland and they're about themselves."
The post came on the heels of Kaczynski's claim voiced during PiS's two-day convention in Katowice, southern Poland. The opposition leader said Germany and France want to "take our state away from us."
During PO's Saturday convention, Tusk commented on Kaczynski's remarks, saying: "I know that everyone sometimes has a temptation to say 'what nonsense this Kaczynski is talking ?' I don't know, something must have messed up in this old man's head, thinking that he sees France as the main enemy. One could really think that something is off. But this is not the point."
The prime minister added that PiS's key foes are the EU, Germany and France, which in fact means that "the biggest problem is our freedom."
The formation of the new party also involves adopting new statutes and overhauling its structures in a bid to attract new voters, with two years remaining until Poland's high-stakes parliamentary election in 2027, which could determine whether the country leans toward right-wing rule or a more liberal government. (PAP)
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