Poland's ruling conservative minority on Thursday offered a significant concession to the opposition over the timing of a vote on the 2006 budget in an attempt to avert an all-out confrontation, Reuters reported. The conservatives proposed resuming work on the budget on Saturday and a final debate on the bill 10 days later, rowing back from an earlier proposal, which had infuriated the opposition, to delay all work on the bill by two weeks. "Law and Justice has proposed a compromise," Przemyslaw Gosiewski, head of the ruling Law and Justice party's parliamentary grouping, told reporters. "The second reading of the budget will be on Saturday. Later the public finance committee will prepare a report that parliament will debate on Jan. 24," he said. The opposition had sought to cram all work on the draft into this week's sessions, fearing that a delay could push work on the budget past its constitutional deadline, possibly triggering an early election. The Law and Justice party won an election in September, but lacks a majority in parliament and is under growing pressure to forge alliances to form a stable government capable of pushing through legislation.
