Elections Off!
President Lech Kaczynski on Monday rejected speculation he would dissolve parliament and call early elections for the spring, capping a daylong storm of uncertainty over Poland's political future.
Kaczynski, in a nationally televised speech, said a new 'stability pact' in parliament between the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and smaller populist and Catholic nationalist parties ensured stability for the minority government and its legislative agenda.
Earlier Monday, Poland's PAP news agency quoted unnamed senior PiS officials as saying that Kaczynski was close to dissolving parliament because the constitutional deadline for the 2006 budget had been breached.
The political storm came just 100 days after Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's government took office following a surprise PiS victory over the liberal Civic Platform (PO) in September's parliamentary elections.