Leszek Miller, former prime minister and leader of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has rejoined his old party.

The decision to readmit Miller was made by his local party in Lodz, central Poland, on Wednesday. Head of the Lodz SLD, Rafał Paras, said the decision to re-admit Miller was taken “almost unanimously”.

Miller left SLD in September 2007, in protest against being left off the election list of the SLD centre-left alliance with the Left and Democrats group (SLD SdPl, PD, UP). He briefly teamed up with Andrzej Lepper’s Self-Defense but failed to get elected in the autumn’s general election.

Miller said Wednesday that the party was more important than “imaginary grievances” and that he was rejoining his old party because it had made policy progress under the leadership of Grzegorz Napieralski, and has a chance to increase support.

He said he has no intention of being involved either in the presidential or local elections this year - he denied that he would be running for the job of president of Lodz - and the amount of time he can spend on party business at the moment depends on his family situation, as his wife is very ill.

He wholeheartedly supported the SLD candidate for president in the September election, Jerzy Szmajdziński, he said. (pg)