PiS decides to drop corruption crusader image

A high-up Law and Justice (PiS) party member has been caught on tape trying to bribe a member of another party to break away and join PiS

From The International Herald Tribune:

Late Tuesday, TVN television broadcast footage of a chief aide to the prime minister offering a high government position and financial support to a prominent lawmaker of the former coalition partner Self-Defense in exchange for crossing over to the ruling Law and Justice Party.

Opposition parties quickly condemned the alleged vote-buying, and the Polish Peasants Party on Wednesday said it would not hold talks with Law and Justice scheduled for later in the day.

"The coalition talks won't be happening today. The prime minister can say he didn't know about what happened, but anyone who saw the tapes can see... it's simply corruption," Jaroslaw Kalinowski of the PSL told Tok FM radio Wednesday morning.

It's difficult to see how PiS can hold off new elections - or even how they can hold off a vote on the dissolution of the Sejm until October 10, as they had planned.

It's also much more likely now that Civic Platform's planned anti-government demonstration will be successful.

Whatever credibility PiS had left, it has now lost.