Polish governmental crisis a ploy to divert attention from another scandal

Poland has managed to avert a governmental crisis; the populist Samoobrona party will remain in the governmental coalition for now. Adelheid Wölf believes Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczynski's (PiS) dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister Andrej Lepper was an attempt to divert attention from another scandal: Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, founder of the ultra-conservative Radio Maryja, has described President Lech Kaczynski as "a puppet of the Jewish lobby". Wölfl comments. "A government crisis involving left-wing populist [Lepper] suits the Kaczynskis better that a scandal involving the anti-Semitic priest. Though without Self-Defence [Samoobrana] the governmental coalition would lose its parliamentary majority, things don't look good for Lepper's party in the polls. Therefore it's better for the party to stay in government even though its leader has been stripped of his powers... But even if Samoobrona leaves the coalition and early elections are called, the Kaczynskis won't have lost much because they need the support of the priest more. The fact is that Radio Maryja has the backing of around five million Polish citizens and Rydzyk's media empire openly supported the twins in their 2005 election campaign."

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