Zbigniew Ziobro, the deputy leader of Poland's main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), has written a letter to party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, urging him to bring the recent discord in the party under control.

A number of party members have verbally attacked Mr Ziobro for comments he made in an interview with Nasz Dziennik last week.

Mr Ziobro told the newspaper that unless PiS transforms itself into a party that is able to get elected on its own, it should split into two groupings – one centrist and the other nationalist – in order to build a coalition that would be capable of winning.

His statement was widely interpreted as a call for the break-up of PiS, although Mr Ziobro has denied those claims.

“I ask you to please prevent PiS's party members from attacking me and other PiS members for expressing the view that PiS can evolve in order to win,” Zbigniew Ziobro wrote in his letter to Mr Kaczyński.

In his letter, Mr Ziobro said that he expects and welcomes an open discussion within PiS on how to improve the party's popularity and increase its chances of winning the next parliamentary elections.

Izabela Depczyk