Efforts by Poland's ruling conservatives to build a new coalition hit a snag today when a key party signalled it may line up with an opposition group in local elections.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is looking for a majority after ditching his leftist partners last month in a row over the budget. Parliament is likely to vote on Friday on a motion to shorten its terms and call snap elections.
Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice party needs the support of independent deputies and the small Polish Peasants Party.
But the Peasants will likely run in a block with the centre-right opposition Civic Platform in local elections in November, a Platform leader said yesterday, a move that angered Law and Justice.
"It is hard to imagine partners of the Civic Platform in local elections would at the same time be our partners in a coalition," Law and Justice parliamentary head Marek Kuchcinski told news channel TVN 24.
Roman Giertych, the head of Kaczynski's junior coalition partners, the League of Polish Families, told reporters a deal with the Peasants was unacceptable unless the Peasants broke off co-operation with Civic Platform.
The conservatives have the votes to block the motion, which requires a two-thirds majority to pass. But Mr Kaczynski has said he would agree to early elections, possibly in late November, if he failed to find a new majority. He gave himself no deadline.
Mr Kaczynski came to power promising to rid the European Union's biggest ex-communist member of a network of former communists, businessmen and secret service agents he says took control of Poland after the 1989 revolution.
His alliance with the leftist Self-Defence party foundered over a budget row. But analysts said Self-Defence had also grown wary that Kaczynski's party was luring away their rural voters.
The Peasants party could face a similar threat in a coalition with Law and Justice, dampening their interest in supporting the government.
"Civic Platform, a moderate party with different voters, is a safer choice for the Peasants," said Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, head of the Public Affairs Institute in Warsaw. "I think the conservatives will have to go for early elections."
Surveys over the last week show that the pro-business Civic Platform (PO) lead the conservatives by 12-16 percentage points and that more than 60 percent of Poles want elections.
Early polls could coincide with the second round of local elections scheduled for Nov 26, politicians have said. But they would need approval this week, since polls must be called 45 days before they are held, according to Polish law.