Poland's PiS Party Loses About 30 Lawmakers

Approximately 30 members of Poland's main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), lost their party membership after failing to renounce internal party associations by midnight on Thursday, as the party leadership had demanded under threat of expulsion. PiS Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced the move.

The measure primarily affects members of the Rozwoj Plus platform, founded by former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. According to Kaczynski, the PiS Political Committee will formally confirm the termination of their membership on Tuesday.

Kaczynski said the dispute was not only related to the Rozwoj Plus association but primarily to a proposal that, he said, emerged several weeks ago with the aim of splitting the party. The PiS leadership therefore viewed the association as part of that plan.

The PiS leadership had issued an ultimatum to its lawmakers to renounce membership in internal party associations. Those who did not comply automatically ceased to be party members under the party's bylaws. Morawiecki did not immediately comment on the decision.

(pap, lud)