Vice-premier Przemysław Gosiewski told Polish Radio 1 this morning that he believed Andrzej Lepper and Roman Giertych’s reply to PM’s letter, setting out conditions for the ruling coalition to remain in place, should be positive. The deadline for reply to the letter Jarosław Kaczyński sent to the leaders of LiS is tonight at midnight.

Gosiewski believes that the conditions set by PM in the letter, that Lepper should cooperate with investigations by Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) into a corrupt land deal scandal, are reasonable. He stressed that his party would not allow to LiS – a new alliance between Lepper’s Selfdefense and Giertych’s League of Polish Families - to disrupt CBA’s work.

Gosiewski said that further steps would be taken if PiS did not receive any reply from LiS by midnight and early election would be very likely, but more information would be available after the parliamentary summer holiday.

Vice premier Przemysław Gosiewski also referred to the issue of appointing a parliamentary commission to investigate the so-called ‘coal mafia’ and suicide a few months ago of ex construction minister and SLD member, Barbara Blida.

He is against the appointment of such a commission and is not even convinced by the media’s disclosure of a secret recording of Emil Melka, a prosecutor excluded from the investigation, who said he would be ready to tell the truth about the investigation, but he would only do so before an investigative commission appointed by the parliament.

In Gosiewski’s opinion, the prosecutor’s office is coping very well with the case and there is no need for any other bodies to investigate it. The vice premier pointed out that he was a supporter of parliamentary commissions, but only in situations when the judicial system could not cope with them or when the statute of limitations applied.

"Whenever the prosecutor’s office acts efficiently, I believe it should be responsible for any investigation. Only when an investigation is inconclusive should parliamentary commissions be appointed", said Przemysław Gosiewski.