Poland's biggest opposition party faces split over tensions about its direction

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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's main opposition party faces a split in a disagreement over its future direction, with the party leader saying Friday that more than 30 lawmakers have effectively left.

The conservative nationalist Law and Justice party ran Poland from 2015 to 2023, when the current liberal government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk took power. During that time, it tightened control over the courts by appointing loyalist judges to higher courts and punishing critics with disciplinary action.

The Tusk government's efforts to reverse those changes have repeatedly been blocked by two successive presidents sympathetic to Law and Justice.

Still, tensions within Law and Justice have simmered as a national election next year approaches, and it faces a challenge from parties further to its right.

Longtime leader Jarosław Kaczyński and Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland's prime minister from 2017 to 2023, have been at the center of the spat. Morawiecki represents a relatively moderate faction and in April set up an association called Development Plus, which many in the party view with suspicion.

A deadline for lawmakers to commit not to be members of other political associations expired Thursday night. A meeting Thursday between Kaczyński and Morawiecki failed to resolve their differences.

On Friday, Kaczyński said that, as a result, more than 30 lawmakers had resigned from their membership of the party, Polish news agency PAP reported. He said the party's political committee will meet on Tuesday to acknowledge that.

Piotr Müller, a European Parliament lawmaker for Law and Justice and Morawiecki supporter, contradicted the party leadership. He wrote on X that no party members who were in Development Plus had actually resigned from Law and Justice.

Morawiecki said Friday that he and other members of his association haven’t yet discussed the formation of any new party, and said that “we have to discuss all plans for the future,” PAP reported.

Law and Justice has 186 seats in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower house of parliament.