Poland's Senate today torpedoed a bid by the president for a non-binding referendum on a new constitution in a move that analysts said underscored tensions within the governing right-wing camp.
Senators voted 10 in favour to 30 against and 52 abstentions in the 100-member upper house of parliament that is dominated by the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.
PiS protege President Andrzej Duda proposed last week that the referendum could focus on issues like giving the president greater powers to the supremacy of Polish laws over EU ones.
Analysts in Warsaw said today that the Senate's overwhelming rejection of Duda's idea was meant to let him know that he is not a leading figure in the party.
"It's about showing him his place; he is a PiS candidate who depends on the party, not a PiS leader who can decide about policy matters," Warsaw University political analyst Anna Materna Sosnowska told AFP.
"It's meant to show the president that he doesn't stand a chance of forming his own political camp" ahead of elections in 2020, she added.
Duda was catapulted into the presidency in 2015 thanks to PiS backing after holding various senior administrative government posts without substantial political clout.
The PiS is controlled by party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is also widely regarded as Poland's de facto decision-maker despite only being an MP.
Kaczynski recently said that the PiS would back Duda again in 2020.
Having taken office in 2015, the PiS government is highly critical of the current constitution drafted by its leftist and liberal political opponents.
Under Polish law, it is up to the Senate to decide whether to proceed with presidential proposals.
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