Secretary General of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) Grzegorz Napieralski has announced during the party’s local convention in Gniezno, western Poland, that he is going to pursue SLD leadership.

“All that has recently been built on the Left has failed. I believe that my decision will allow us to re-build the position of the party in the country,” Napieralski explained.

The politician assured that if the becomes the new leader of the Alliance, he will continue to co-operate with its current head Wojciech Olejniczak.

The struggle for the leadership will flare up at the party’s congress in June.

Last weekend the members of the Social Democracy of Poland (SdPl) decided to leave the Left Democrats coalition (LiD) built with SLD and the Labour Union (UP). Earlier on, SLD ended the cooperation with the Democratic Party (PD), thus ending the left-wing.

Shortly after the split, Secretary General Napieralski criticized SLD’s leader Olejniczak that the break-up of LiD happened ‘too late’. (jm)