WARSAW, Aug. 12 — Seeking to end months of political turmoil, Polish officials confirmed Sunday that the government would hold elections by November, two years ahead of schedule.
The vote might open the way for a coalition government led by the opposition Civic Platform, a center-right party that has advocated better relations with Germany and the European Union, analysts said Sunday.
With less than 10 weeks to campaign, the political parties will be seeking support from the center ground, particularly from young people who, according to opinion polls, have become disillusioned with a swing to the far right and nationalist end of the political spectrum.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s decision to hold an early vote came after months of disagreements with his two small, radical coalition partners, the populist Self-Defense Party and the nationalist League of Polish Families.
As a price for supporting Mr. Kaczynski, the two parties had made demands that included the introduction of the death penalty, a complete ban on abortion and more independence from the European Union.
Mr. Kaczynski, whose Law and Justice Party narrowly won the last elections, in October 2005, and whose identical twin brother, Lech, is president, has also clashed with his ministers and senior advisers. Several had criticized the prime minister over accusations that he used prosecutors and the judiciary for surveillance in his campaign to stamp out corruption.
But with his government lacking a parliamentary majority, Mr. Kaczynski said he saw no alternative to holding early elections.
“I see no possibility of supporting a minority government, and we do not want to have the kind of government we have had recently,” he said Saturday at a news conference in Warsaw.
Mr. Kaczynski told Roman Giertych, the leader of the League of Polish Families, on Saturday that he was breaking up the coalition and that ministers from his party and Self-Defense would be dismissed on Monday. In fact, Mr. Kaczynski had already fired Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Self-Defense, from the posts of deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture because of corruption charges.
The opposition Civic Platform, which narrowly lost the 2005 election, said Sunday that it was ready for the campaign. The latest opinion polls suggest that the party, led by Donald Tusk, would win 33 percent of the vote and that Law and Justice would receive about 23 percent. Even at that, Civic Platform would require a partner to establish a stable government.
Civic Platform is, however, still divided over several policy issues.
Officials said the party still had to agree on what kind of economic policy to pursue, on how to improve its relations with the European Union and Germany and on the relationship it wanted with Russia.
The election will also test the new Left and Democrats — a loose gathering of center-left parties — and the Democratic Left Alliance, the successor to the former Communist Party. The Left and Democrats party is led by a former president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who is considered one of the few politicians capable of rebuilding the left.
However, Mr. Kwasniewski could face an uphill struggle in convincing the public that the former Communists have credibility. They had a reputation for corruption, cronyism and fraud while governing until 2005 and were defeated in the 2005 election. Significantly, the leaders of the Left and Democrats have promised to fight corruption as part of their platform.
Mr. Kaczynski’s Law and Justice and the opposition Democratic Left Alliance were recently questioned by the State Electoral Commission about accusations that they had accepted donations from foreigners, a violation of electoral law. Mr. Kaczynski quickly promised to return any questionable donations, but the investigation caused some panic inside the party.
“If Law and Justice has broken the electoral law, it could be deprived of state subsidies,” noted Janusz Onyszkiewicz, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, which is part of the Left and Democrats movement.
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