It seems that Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is on a roll when it comes to sacking members of his cabinet. The first victim (though rightly so) was radical populist Andrzej Lepper, sacked for being linked to a political corruption scandal involving bribes. Next to be canned by the PM is Interior Minister Janusz Kaczmarek, also on suspicions of corruption.
The minister is suspected of leaking classified information and obstructing an inquiry into alleged bribery. The alleged scandal that incriminates both Mr. Lepper and Mr. Kaczmarek involves the re-designation of agricultural land for commercial use, with millions of dollars paid in bribes. At the moment, the head of the National Security Council, Wladyslaw Stasiak, will replace Mr. Kaczmarek, but an early poll is not out of the question. On Sunday, the sacked Lepper also pulled his party's ministers, junior members of the governing coalition, out of the cabinet, causing a crisis in the Polish government that might only be solved by early elections. While the next election is not due until 2009, at the moment the ruling party, the Kaczynski brothers' Law and Justice (PiS), are short of a majority in the parliament, and it looks like elections are now inevitable. |