WARSAW — Poland's opposition will start a legislative procedure to remove central bank Governor Marek Belka after Prime Minister Donald Tusk survived a vote of confidence triggered by a scandal over leaked recordings.
With less than one-third of Parliament's 460 seats, Law and Justice will seek the legislature's support for the motion to bring the governor before the State Tribunal, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the opposition party's leader, told reporters in Warsaw on Friday. Kaczynski didn't say when it will be filed and whether it has the support of other parties in Parliament.
The opposition is trying to ratchet up pressure after the ruling coalition won a confidence motion in Tusk's government by 34 votes late Wednesday. Poland's longest-serving prime minister since the fall of communism 25 years ago has sought to douse the crisis sparked by secret recordings of officials, including ministers and the central bank governor.
''This scandal showed the truth about this government and we'll keep bringing it up until elections, whenever they may come,'' Kaczynski said. ''We won't let it be swept under the carpet.''
An absolute majority of lawmakers must support the motion for it to pass. Tusk's coalition controls 235 votes in the lower house of Parliament, 32 of which belong to the Peasants Party.
The special tribunal, which is empowered to rule on constitutional questions, reviews activities of state officials.
Law and Justice also filed a motion for what's known as a constructive vote of no confidence in the government, which may be put for a vote as early as next month, he said.
Belka said in an interview published Wednesday that he wasn't planning to step down as central bank governor and vowed to keep the scandal from knocking monetary policy off track.
Przemyslaw Kuk, a central bank spokesman, declined to comment on Law and Justice's motion, saying that a statement may be published later Thursday. Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, a government spokeswoman, wasn't available to comment.
The rift over the taping scandal is jeopardizing the political stability brought by Tusk, who in 2011 became the first Polish premier to win a second term since 1989. He's said the recordings were carried out by a ''criminal group'' intent on destabilizing the country.
Warsaw prosecutors charged two more suspects with complicity in illegal eavesdropping, according to a statement on their website. There was a lack of evidence that they participated in organized crime alongside two men who were charged earlier, it said.
Tusk argued Wednesday that he needed the vote of confidence to be certain that he had a ''mandate'' to be effective in talks at a European Union summit on energy security in Brussels Thursday.
The crisis erupted on June 14 after Wprost magazine published secretly recorded and expletive-laced conversations of central bank Belka discussing with Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz steps to boost the economy and help the government win elections.
The suspects detained are linked to coal distributors and importers, Tusk said Wednesday. The scandal must be viewed in the ''context'' of the unrest in neighboring Ukraine and the trading of Russian gas, he said.