After the dismissal of the Polish Vice Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin, the national-conservative government alliance broke up.

The board of directors of Gowin's conservative group “Vererstandung” (“Porozumenie”) decided on Wednesday to leave the list alliance and the joint faction with the ruling party PiS.

From now on, they want to act as an independent parliamentary group, said spokesman Jan Strzezek on Twitter.

With the departure, the PiS loses its absolute majority in parliament, now everything boils down to a minority government.

This is a "real scenario", said PiS spokesman Radoslaw Fogiel to the Wirtualna Polska portal.

"Governing in such a situation is difficult and inconvenient, but not impossible."

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dismissed Vice Prime Minister and Development Minister Gowin on Tuesday.

Gowin then terminated his group's collaboration with the PiS on his own initiative.

Dispute over broadcasting law

The background to this is internal conflicts over an economic stimulus plan and a new broadcasting law.

Parliament is due to vote on the amendment to the Broadcasting Act, which would make it more difficult to issue licenses.

It is unclear whether the PiS will get the majority required for this.

The 59-year-old Gowin represents the conservative group Porozumenie (Understanding), which has so far formed an alliance with the PiS and another small party under the name “United Rights”.

Porozumenie had 12 out of 232 members of the government camp in parliament.

The official reason for Gowin's dismissal was that his group had not worked on reforms of the PiS at a sufficient pace.

Gowin had criticized that massive tax increases are planned for a planned economic stimulus program.

The actual background, however, is the dispute over an amendment to the Broadcasting Act.

The plans introduced by the PiS in July provide that broadcasting licenses can only be issued to foreigners if they “have their headquarters or their place of residence in the European Economic Area”.

In addition, the condition applies that the licensee must not be dependent on someone who is headquartered or resides outside of it.

PiS is optimistic

According to critics, the law targets the private broadcaster TVN, which is part of the American group Discovery through a holding company registered in the Netherlands.

The news channel TVN24 in particular takes a line that is critical of the PiS.

Several thousand people took to the streets against the law on Tuesday.

Gowin had criticized the novella.

With the departure of Porozumenie from the government alliance, the PiS loses its absolute majority in parliament.

Your spokesman, Fogiel, nevertheless stressed that this was not the end of the alliance.

He was optimistic that the necessary votes would be gathered to pass the new broadcasting law.

"When it comes to the majority in the Sejm, I'm reassured."

Polish media do not rule out that the PiS will try to secure the support of several defectors from Gowin's camp as well as the votes of the anti-system party Kukiz and a few non-attached MPs for the broadcasting law.