Government spokesman Piotr Muller said that Agreement party leader Jarosław Gowin has lost his position as deputy PM and minister of development, labor, and technology. He added that PM Mateusz Morawiecki turned to President Andrzej Duda to dismiss Gowin from the government.
Muller emphasized that the government’s efficiency is dependent on cooperation between Law and Justice (PiS) and its coalition partners – Solidarity Poland and the Agreement. He stated that in recent weeks one could “observe with worry” Gowin’s actions, which seemed intended to undermine the trust towards cooperation as part of the United Right.
In particular, the spokesman pointed to Gowin’s opposition to the introduction of the Polish Deal which the former deputy PM had signed in May.
“This was not keeping to a deal. We cannot allow this. Mr. Gowin changed his mind,” he said.
In response, Jarosław Gowin announced that this essentially means the end of the United Right and claimed that he had learned of his dismissal through media.
“PiS has made the decision to actually end the United Right project. After seven years of cooperation and six years of co-governing, we have been pushed out of the coalition due to our loyalty to the United Right’s values,” he said.
Government spokesman Piotr Muller:
This was not keeping to a deal. We cannot allow this. Mr. Gowin changed his mind.
The National Board of the Agreement Party decided Wednesday morning to leave the United Right. “MPs of the Agreement will leave Law and Justice (PiS) parliamentary club and form the parliamentary group of Jarosław Gowin’s Agreement party,” informed the party deputy spokesman o Twitter.
Editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Polska” Tomasz Sakiewicz believes that the United Right most likely will maintain a majority in parliament, despite Gowin’s dismissal.
“If PiS and Mateusz Morawiecki have decided that they can maintain a majority without Gowin and the Agreement party, then that is most likely the case,” he said. Sakiewicz noted, however, that the actual situation will reveal itself in the upcoming weeks.
As a reminder, PiS’s conflict with Gowin’s Agreement has been ongoing for a long time. Gowin demanded changes in projects important to PiS, such as the Polish Deal and the media bill amendment, which has been defined by the opposition and some journalists as “lex TVN” (referring to Polish liberal tv station TVN).
During the meeting of the Agreement’s management on Saturday, the party’s politicians posed an ultimatum to PiS: the addition of corrections proposed by Jarosław Gowin or the cancellation of the coalition agreement.
