WARSAW (BLOOMBERG) - Poland's ruling coalition has crumbled, endangering the nationalists' grip on power halfway through their second term.

Premier Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday (Aug 10) fired his deputy, Mr Jaroslaw Gowin, who is also the leader of a small satellite party in the coalition.

The move came a day before the ruling party plans to vote on legislation to tighten control over the media by ousting Discovery, the United States owner of the biggest private television network in the country of 38 million people.

The dismissal was triggered by Mr Gowin's rejection of the ruling party's flagship stimulus programme and tax reforms, government spokesman Piotr Muller said.

He invited lawmakers allied to Mr Gowin to continue working with the government and said Law & Justice was "certain" it would maintain enough backers in Parliament to implement its programme.

But Mr Gowin appeared to end that narrative, saying the coalition has been "terminated" and that his party was open to cooperation with the opposition.

Law & Justice would probably continue to rule with a minority administration, backed on an ad hoc basis by independent lawmakers as well as smaller political parties in Parliament, he said.

While early elections are also possible, Law & Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in April that, despite the tensions, he does not predict a new ballot before the regularly scheduled vote in late 2023.

It is not immediately clear how many of the 13 lawmakers in Mr Gowin's Agreement party will leave the coalition, which until now controlled 232 out of the Lower House's 460 seats.

He said his party will formally decide whether to leave the coalition on Wednesday.

Dr Rafal Chwedoruk, a political scientist at Warsaw University, said Mr Gowin's exit will not change much for the government, which has been split over key issues relating to European Union membership and economic policy for a year.

"Today, the ruling party got rid of a problem," Dr Chwedoruk said by phone. "They will need to seek support from smaller groups and independents, which is actually what they've been doing for quite a while."

Free media

Mr Gowin had attacked Law & Justice for poaching his lawmakers.

More recently, he said his party will not support the media law forcing Discovery to sell control of a news channel that has unearthed graft and nepotism at various levels of government.

Thousands of people protested against the media law on Tuesday evening in about 100 Polish cities and towns, calling the legislation an attempt to muzzle critical journalists and reverse the country's embrace of Western democratic standards.

"This is a wake-up call for everyone," Ms Agnieszka Holland, a renowned film director and government critic, said about the media legislation.

"It's not enough to make snide remarks on social media, Poles need to act now."

Poland has slid in press freedom rankings since Law & Justice took power in 2015. Besides taking on the media, the authorities have also picked fights with European partners over judicial independence and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and others) rights.

To trigger an early ballot, Law & Justice would need support from the main opposition parties.

Opinion polls show Law & Justice winning the next elections unless the opposition can form a unified pro-EU front. Mr Kaczynski opted to stage a snap election in 2007 only to lose power for the next eight years.

Law & Justice's only remaining partner is the party of Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who wanted Poland to veto the EU's virus recovery package and has broached the topic of the country leaving the 27-nation bloc.