Poolse coalitie wankelt (en)

Poland may be heading towards an early election this autumn following an apparent break-up of the ruling coalition, with the internal political turmoil likely to influence Warsaw's further performance in EU treaty talks.

The government crisis occurred late Monday (9 July) after Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced that Andrzej Lepper, deputy prime minister and agriculture minister, had been sacked due to his alleged involvement in a corruption case.

"I cannot rule out that Mr Andrzej Lepper has taken part in activities criminal in nature," Mr Kaczynski said on public television channel TVP1, adding that the populist Samoobrona party leader "declined to resign of his own accord."

Meanwhile, Mr Lepper offered his own description of the event in an interview with the television news channel TVN24.

He said that he had originally planned to hand in his resignation himself while keeping his party in the coalition but the decision about his sacking had been made before he could do so.

"As soon as I entered Mr prime minister's [office I saw] he was signing my resignation. So I go: that's not the way it's done Mr prime minister," said Mr Lepper, adding he had informed his coalition partner that "there is no coalition."

The Samoobrona party contributes 46 MPs to the Polish ruling coalition of 224 members. Without its support Mr Kaczynski's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party does not have a majority in the 460-seat lower house of the parliament.

The party is due on Tuesday to decide whether it will indeed leave the government.

Last year, Mr Lepper was fired for criticising the government but returned just one month later to stave off early elections. This time he claimed he would not come back. He also rejects allegations about any wrongdoing.

In his reaction, Mr Kaczynski said his party is prepared for such a scenario. "If it turns out that there is no possibility of maintaining a government majority, there will be early elections," he said, adding they could be held this autumn or early next year.

The political crisis in Poland comes just days before the country's government is expected to hammer out its position on the complete version of the new EU treaty.

It had already signalled that it was not content with a sensitive part of the agreement concerning EU voting rights.