Ziobro - leader-in-waiting?; photo PAP

MEP Zbigniew Ziobro has said that he has no intention to run as leader of Law and Justice (PiS) and that claims that he is de facto party leader are like a “children‘s fairy tale”.

Former justice minister and MEP Zbigniew Ziobro’s remarks come after Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska and Elzbieta Jakubiak were expelled from the party on Friday after what the party leadership felt were distracting remarks about the future strategy of Law and Justice during the local election campaign.

He also rejected the claim that it was he who was controlling the aggressive campaign against the government and not party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

"When I listen to these tales for young children told by Joanna and Ela Jakubiak, I am really amazed that anyone who knows Jaroslaw Kaczynski could believe them. The claim that Jaroslaw Kaczynski is controlled by anyone is completely contrary to what we know about him through the years," said Ziobro.

He said that the recent statements of disunity Kluzik-Rostkowska and Jakubiak stem from, in part, “thwarted ambition” and a “political campaign” against the party leadership that he fails to understand.

Kluzik-Rostkowska and Jakubiak were two politicians seen as moderates in the paety which urged a more consensual style of politics as the aggressive stand Jaroslaw Kaczynski ahs taken over the Smolensk disaster and other matters has turned voters away from voting for Law and Justice.

Palikot invites

Meanwhile, Lublin MP Janusz Palikot, who left Civic Platform last month to form his own more liberal party, said that Kluzik-Rostkowska and other disaffected PiS MPs were welcome to join his new Movement for a Modern Poland.

Palikot told a rally in Warsaw on Sunday he wants 30 MPs to leave Law and Justice in order to weaken the party in parliament.

Palikot also criticised President Komorowski for not keeping to election campaign promises.

Palikot demands troop withdrawal from Afghanistan next year, and free IVF treatment for all couples, married or otherwise, on the national health service.
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Sacked Law and Justice MPs won’t join government, thenews.pl, 6 Nov
Law and Justice kick out party dissident Kluzik-Rostkowska, thenews.pl, 5 Nov