POLAND: The Polish Prime Minister, Mr Leszek Miller, won a pledge of loyalty from his coalition ally, the Peasants Party (PSL), yesterday after some PSL deputies sided with the opposition in a dispute over privatisation.
Mr Miller won the support of the PSL leaders after breakaway deputies backed an opposition-led parliamentary blockade and demanded the resignation of the house speaker, Mr Marek Borowski, a leader of Mr Miller's SLD party.
The climbdown by the junior party came after Mr Miller, whose left-wing government today marks its first year in office, read the riot act following two days of chaotic scenes in the lower house.
"The PSL must answer the question: does it want to be in this coalition? This will depend on the vote for Borowski's removal," Mr Miller told public radio.
The PSL responded by saying it had obliged its deputies to back Mr Borowski. "Those who do not comply with this resolution will be in significant breach of PSL rules, setting off major disciplinary consequences," the PSL said.
The PSL has said the $360 million sale of a Warsaw utility, Stoen, to RWE of Germany breaches coalition agreements, but its leader, the Farm Minister, Mr Jaroslaw Kalinowski, said the disagreement would not break up the one-year-old cabinet.
"If we're going to carry out the coalition agreement we will do what we have to do, in full responsibility for the state," Mr Kalinowski told reporters.
Mr Borowski is under fire for ordering security guards to remove a maverick opposition deputy who had staged a 19-hour sit-in at the assembly's podium in protest against the cabinet's sale of Warsaw's power utility to a German firm.
On Thursday a second populist group invaded the floor, forcing parliament to recess until after local elections on October 27th.
Mr Miller and the Treasury Minister, Mr Wieslaw Kaczmarek, visited Stoen yesterday and reiterated that they would complete this year's largest privatisation despite the political storm. Talks on the sale of the northern power distributor, G-8, would also continue.
The coalition has 254 deputies in the 460-seat parliament, meaning that some of the 41 PSL deputies could rebel without the government losing its majority.