PO plays a waiting game

The leader of Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, has given up the ghost on his party's Stabilization Pact and has demanded early elections by throwing down the gauntlet to his most bitter opponent, Civic Platform (PO) leader Donald Tusk.

"If he thinks that we can't govern well, then let him stand in a fair election race," the PiS  leader said. Tusk and PO refuse to be drawn, however, and Tusk has already spoken out against elections in May: "It is out of the question. We can talk about elections that are joined with local government elections."

The motion to dissolve parliament will be voted on in the first week of April, but it's unlikely to carry. The dissolution of parliament requires a majority of two-thirds, meaning PO's support is crucial. So far only Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has supported the idea of early elections.

Support for the government and its proposals is weak in the Sejm, but Kaczyński sees no reason to dismiss Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's cabinet. "Other solutions, other ways of supporting the government need to be found," he said.

This "other solution" could be in the form of a coalition, with the Peasants' Party (PSL) replacing LPR as a third faction alongside PiS and Self-defense (SO). However, SO takes a dim view of PSL, and PSL appears unwilling to become the third wheel in a fractured coalition.

PiS is working hard to change PO's mind. After PO's Bronisław Komorowski suggested that his party could accept some kind of mixed-representation election system, PiS immediately submitted a bill from the previous parliamentary term, according to which 50 percent of candidates would be elected in single-mandate constituencies and 50 percent in proportional-mandate constituencies. Tusk labeled the proposed election system unacceptable.

For the first time since before the elections it seems the ball is in PO's court, and it's intent on playing a long game.