The coalition government of Poland's conservative Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski was in limbo Tuesday after the dismissal of deputy prime minister and leader of the populist Samoobrona (Self Defence) junior coalition partner Andrzej Lepper amidst allegations of corruption, according to dpa. Kaczynski said Monday early elections could come as soon as this autumn, if he failed to form a sound majority coalition in the wake of Samoobrona's departure from government. Samoobrona would stay in government conditionally at least until Friday, deposed party leader Andrzej Lepper said Tuesday afternoon, thus continuing to send mixed signals on the future of his party (46 seats) in the tri-party coalition with Kaczynski's Conservative Law and Justice (PiS - 149 seats) party and the small right-wing League of Polish Families (LPR - 29 seats). Lepper said he wanted justice officials to produce concrete evidence of his alleged involvement in a corruption affair by Friday. He was sacked Monday in connection with a corruption probe that Prime Minister Kaczynski said involved "several million" zloty. "Unless we find a sound majority, this could mean early elections," Kaczynski told reporters after the sudden dismissal of Lepper on Monday evening. Elections could come in the autumn or early next year, Kacczynski said. Kaczynski's PiS-Samoobrona-LPR coalition commands 224 seats in the 460 lower house of parliament. It relies on the votes of small, so- called "bottom feeder", parties to reach the 231 seat total required for a simple parliamentary majority. Polish media were rife with speculation Tuesday that Kaczynski was soliciting support from Samoobrona members considering a party switch to the PiS. This is not the first time Kaczynski has sacked Lepper. A year ago, Kaczynski briefly removed Lepper from his post only to renominate him after a political scandal damaged the popularity ratings of the prime minister's Law and Justice (PiS) party. Kaczynski's PiS took office after its narrow victory over the Civic Platform (PO) liberal party, now the largest opposition party, in a September 2005 general election. Poland's next regularly scheduled parliamentary election is autumn 2009. Prominent members of the PO are calling for fresh elections. Markets, which are not fond of the populist Samoobrona party, reacted calmly to the political turmoil, with some welcoming suggestions an early election could bring a liberal party to power.
