AP, Warsaw
Poland’s ruling right-wing party lost its parliamentary majority Wednesday after a small coalition partner announced that it was leaving the government amid a rift over legislation it views as an attack on media freedom.
The media bill, which is scheduled for an afternoon vote, would prevent non-European owners from having controlling stakes in Polish media companies. It is viewed as a crucial test for the survival of independent media in the former communist nation, coming six years into the rule of a populist government that has chipped away at media and judicial independence.
After a deputy prime minister who is the head of the Agreement party expressed his opposition to the bill and other government plans Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki fired him from government on Tuesday. Agreement party leader Jaroslaw Gowin had said he viewed the legislation as an attack on media diversity.
Gowin’s party said Wednesday that it was formally leaving the governing coalition, meaning that the ruling Law and Justice party has lost the support of Agreement’s 13 votes in parliament — and the slim majority it held in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower house of parliament. Agreement was viewed as the most moderate partner in the conservative three-party coalition that has governed Poland since 2015.
A vote was expected nonetheless on the media amendment at the center of the dispute, with Law and Justice expecting to pick up the needed votes from opposition lawmakers, including some from far-right nationalist groups.
