SO fights back

The outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Andrzej Lepper, who was sacked by Prime Minister Kaczyński last week, has no intention to quietly withdraw from the political spotlight.

"I'm not planning a political retirement," Lepper said on Friday during a conference SO organized to present the party's candidate for the Warsaw Mayor - Marek Czarnecki. But it was Lepper who stole the show by accusing PiS deputies of trying to corrupt his party peers into changing their political affiliation.

"Rywingate is peanuts compared with what's going on in the Sejm at the moment. We've got evidence of corruption proposals. PiS deputy Marek Suski called our deputy Marzena Paduk, offered her money and posts and whatever she asked for if she agreed to join PiS. It's a coup d'etat," Lepper said and announced that he and his party would apply for the creation of an investigative commission to look into the matter.

PiS deputies were trying to convince SO members to leave the party after the PiS-SO-League of Polish Families (LPR) coalition came to an end and PiS struggled to form a majority in Parliament. When WBJ went to press five SO deputies had joined PiS and three more were removed from SO. Lepper also said Anna Kalata, SO's Labor Minister, and Antoni Jaszczak, the Minister of Construction, won't stay in the government.

At the conference, SO unveiled its candidate for Warsaw Mayor, MEP Marek Czarnecki. He wants to move Warsaw City Hall to the Praga district in order to level the development differences between the two banks of the Vistula river. "I want to unite the city. Currently, there are no A-class office buildings or luxurious hotels in Praga. This is wrong and should be changed," said Czarnecki. His full program will be announced at the beginning of October.