Nigerian-born MP John Godson boosts junior coalition ranks
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
29.01.2015 09:26
John Godson, Poland’s first black MP, has decided to switch political alliegance, joining the ranks of the junior coalition partner the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL).
Photo: johngodson.pl
The move was made official by the party’s leader, Deputy PM and Economy Minister Janusz Piechociński, after Godson had earlier told the Polish Press Agency that he would announce his decision “when the time was right”.
Media have been speculating Godson’s move to PSL since December, with the MP saying at the end of the year that he is looking with “respect” at the workings of the party.
According to sources close to the PSL leadership, the party gave itself until the end of January to decide on Godson’s membership, inviting the MP to its Christmas meeting at the end of 2014.
The socially conservative MP, originally from Nigeria and based in Łódź, central Poland, first left the ranks of the ruling Civic Platform (PO) over several issues.
After a short spell as an independent, he joined former justice minister Jarosław Gowin’s Poland Together (PR), although was disciplinarily dropped from the group after polling for the government in a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
Godson’s transfer to the PSL parliamentary club boosts its ranks to 39 MPs in the Sejm lower parliamentary house. (jb)