A crisis within Poland’s ruling conservative bloc has been sparked over the refusal by the Solidarity Poland and Agreement parties to back a measure that bans fur farming and limits ritual animal slaughter as well as a law that would offer immunity to state officials for their actions during the pandemic.
Now, the leadership of Law and Justice (PiS), which is the largest party in the conservative coalition, are threatening to call a snap election.
The crisis intensified when the two allied parties in the coalition failed to support the animal protection legislation in the Lower House of Polish Parliament. All of 20 of the Solidarity Poland MPs voted against it and the members of Agreement abstained.
The minister of Agriculture, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, and some other PiS MPs voted against the measure as well.
Although the bill was passed, as most of the opposition decided to support it, another important piece of legislation for PiS was unable to do so.
PiS was forced to suspend work on the pandemic immunity law as it was unable to muster a majority of support from the coalition partners. PiS’s coalition partners amount to around 40 of the 235 MPs that make up the United Right coalition in the 460-seat parliament.
