PO tells PiS - end the coalition and we back the budget

In exchange they want the dismissal of Deputy Prime Ministers Lepper and Giertych, PiS' support for a constitutional amendment that bans convicted felons from participating in politics, and for the dissolution of Parliament to make way for early elections next spring. When the news about the offer was leaked to the media yesterday, Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski decided to postpone his Thursday's trip to Lithuania to Friday and called an emergency meeting of PiS' political committee to discuss PO's offer and the sex-for-jobs scandal. However, PiS politicians downplayed the significance of PO's offer, saying that no decisions should be made pending the outcome of the prosecutor's investigation. "Lepper is the key. If the prosecutors do not press charges against him, the coalition can be saved, except for the expulsion of the likes of Lyzwinski," PiS politicians said. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) R.M.