PM Tusk: “we cannot afford any mistakes”
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
10.09.2013 11:37
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has rebuffed the idea of holding early elections after the Civic Platform-led coalition majority in the Sejm lower parliamentary house waned to just two seats following Jaroslaw Gowin’s departure from the party on Monday.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
“I do not feel that Poland needs early elections,” Tusk said, adding, however, that “we cannot afford any mistakes.”
A small majority in the Sejm underlines the importance of “conscious discipline” in voting, Tusk told journalists on Tuesday while visiting Poland’s industrial heart of Katowice for a mining trade fair.
Out of 460 seats, Civic Platform (PO) and junior coalition partners the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL) hold just 232. By comparison, the largest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), currently holds 137 seats.
Commenting on the thread-bare advantage, Donald Tusk commented that “everyone ought to know that this is a very serious game with great stakes.”
Remarking the departure of Jaroslaw Gowin – who was at loggerheads with Donald Tusk following his failure to oust him as party leader in an internal ballot – the prime minister said that “the decision in Gowin’s mind had been maturing for a while”.
“Jaroslaw Gowin is responsible for himself and he now has a hard road ahead […], while we will just have to manage [without him],” summed-up Tusk. (jb)
Source: PAP