SLD's last partner considers abandoning ship

This has been forced upon the UP by numerous polls which show that its alliance with the SLD could mean that it will not secure enough votes to return deputies to Parliament. At the UP's national congress next week, party members will select a new leader, as the current leader, Marek Pol, plans to step down. The SLD has already made an offer to the UP to withdraw from coalition and therefore lower the threshold which has to be achieved in order to return deputies to the Sejm from 8% to 5%. Tomasz Nałęcz on the other hand, has invited all UP members abandon the party and to join the new Polish Social Democracy (SDPL). "The Labor Union can try and be independent, but it currently needs shock therapy to wake up the members to the actual political reality," said Ryszard Bugaj, UP founder and its first leader, who added that it is unlikely that the coalition with SLD will be broken before the European elections. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A5) A.K.