PiS ‘dissapointed’ in Duda, but no need for early elections

Top officials from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party said that they were disappointed in President’s Andrzej Duda decision to veto two of the three bills, which PiS claims would reform the judiciary. “We are disturbed by the fact that the president did not insulate himself from the influence of protests,” PiS MP and Sejm deputy speaker Ryszard Terlecki said, while another party official Marek Suski added that his faction might not support Duda candidacy in the 2020 presidential elections. After Duda announced his decision early on Monday PiS leadership held a series of meetings to discuss next steps. According to Newsweek, the party leader, and de facto the most powerful politician in Poland at the moment, Jarosław Kaczyński gave Duda an ultimatum to change his decision, giving him “one hour to do so.” Then, in the evening, both Duda and PM Beata Szydło, who managed Duda’s election campaign in 2015, arranged a televised addresses at the same time. State television, controlled by PiS, chose to broadcast Szydło’s statement, in which she openly criticized the president’s decision, while Duda’s speech was shown on tape delay. Rumors of a special parliamentary session called for next week, during which PiS would try to block the president’s veto were swirling around in the media. Others said that PiS, in its attempts to go to war with Duda, might lose their junior coalition partner Polska Razem which would result in early elections. But it seems, at least for now, that the cooler heads prevailed, and PiS learned a lesson from 2007, when after losing its coalition partners, and the parliamentary majority, it called for snap elections which it lost and didn’t regain power until eight years later. “There are no reasons to hold an early parliamentary election. The majority is stable enough, so it will be maintained,” Terlecki said.