A small party has broken off coalition talks with the government, accusing the ruling conservatives of sleazy conduct and pushing Poland further toward the possibility of early elections.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has been working to rebuild the majority his government lost when it severed ties with a coalition partner last week.
He said the government was willing to face elections, if it had to.
right direction?
"We are convinced that under our leadership Poland is going in the right direction, and we will defend this direction," Kaczynski said in a brief televised speech on Wednesday night.
"We will defend it in parliament, we will defend it before public opinion, and, if need be, we will defend it in elections," he said.
The Polish Peasants' Party complicated his efforts on Wednesday by abandoning talks on joining the government, saying footage aired on Tuesday night showed that Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party was being unfair and corrupt in negotiating Cabinet posts.
The footage, broadcast by private TVN television station, showed a chief aide to the prime minister apparently offering a high government position and financial support to a lawmaker from former coalition partner Self-Defense in exchange for her joining Law and Justice.
provocation
Leaders of Law and Justice called the footage "serious political provocation."
The aide, Adam Lipinski, said the taped exchange was part of normal political negotiation.
Kaczynski agreed, saying that "calling such negotiations corruption is a lie, a hypocrisy."
"People that say that want to bring about a political crisis in Poland," he said.
The footage showed Lipinski asking Self-Defense's Renata Beger what she expected in return for crossing over to Law and Justice, and saying "the secretary of state post in the Agriculture Ministith Self-Defense and the small, right-wing League of Polish Families.
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