Morawiecki says his faction will form a 'Rozwój Plus' parliamentary club if expelled from PiS on Tuesday

Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland's former prime minister, said on Monday that he and the MPs, senator and MEPs associated with his 'Rozwój Plus' association will set up their own parliamentary club if the Law and Justice (PiS) leadership formally removes them from the party on Tuesday. The move would mark the most significant split inside the main opposition party since it lost power.

Ultimatum and expulsion timeline

The rupture follows a PiS leadership resolution requiring all party parliamentarians to declare, under threat of expulsion, that they do not belong to associations conducting political activity inside the grouping. The deadline passed at midnight on Thursday 23 July. Jacek Sasin's 'Po pierwsze Polska' association announced its dissolution on the first day, but Morawiecki signalled he would not dissolve 'Rozwój Plus.'

On Friday 24 July, PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński stated that 'thirty-something' MPs had resigned their membership, knowing the consequences of not signing the declaration. The party's Political Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday 28 July at 17:00 to formally ratify the departures.

Morawiecki's Monday announcement

Speaking on Kanał Zero on Monday, Morawiecki said he had called a meeting of the MPs, senator and MEPs belonging to his association for Tuesday at 20:00. He described it as a 'long, interesting, important, stormy meeting, both substantive and programmatic, as well as conceptual and operational.' He stated plainly that 'if we are thrown out of the party, out of the club, we will set up our own club.' Pressed on whether it would happen this week, he called it 'highly probable' and added that 'Rozwój Plus' would likely serve as the working name for the new club.

Dworczyk: 'Strange' to have 40 independents

Euro-MP Michał Dworczyk, a member of Morawiecki's association, told Polish Radio's Trójka on Monday that he saw no 'substantive or any other grounds' for their removal. He added, however, that 'it would be strange if 40 independent MPs were functioning in the Polish Sejm' and that a club would 'surely be formed.' Dworczyk also told TVN24 that a decision to exclude them would be 'incomprehensible' but would be respected. He had earlier raised the possibility of founding a political party as well.

It would be strange if 40 independent MPs were functioning in the Polish Sejm. So a club will surely be formed.

The faction's numbers and a defection

After Kaczyński's Friday statement, Morawiecki said his grouping comprised 40 MPs, one senator and three MEPs, more than one-fifth of the PiS parliamentary caucus. Morawiecki's allies insisted they had not resigned from PiS itself and blamed 'intriguers' for trying to push them out. On Monday, however, MP Grzegorz Lorek left Rozwój Plus and signed the declaration required by the PiS leadership, Polish Press Agency reported, becoming the first confirmed defection.

Morawiecki said he would probably head the new club but would put that decision to a discussion. 'The most important thing is that we constitute ourselves properly and discuss an action plan up to the elections,' he added, describing their offer to voters as a 'conservative, identity-based, patriotic but centre-right proposition.' The upcoming Political Committee decision is now the trigger: if the expulsions are formalised at 17:00 on Tuesday, Morawiecki's 20:00 meeting becomes the constitutive session of a breakaway parliamentary club.