At a glance: Poland’s coalition building

The FT offers readers a snapshot of Poland’s rocky road to majority coalition building:

*Since the parliamentary election in September 2005, Poland has been governed by a conservative Law and Justice party which has a minority in parliament

*While Law and Justice was expected to form a coalition with the pro-business Civic Platform, negotiations collapsed over policy differences and personality clashes

*Talks aimed at creating a coalition with a majority in parliament are now in their final phase. The resulting government is likely to include Self Defence, a populist leftwing party, the League of Polish Families, who are rightwing nationalists, and the small Peasants' party

*Government moves to block the merger of two local banking groups controlled by UniCredit of Italy brought it into conflict with both the European Commission and the central bank in Warsaw

*Since coming into office Law and Justice has attacked instit utions beyond party control - including the central bank, the constitutional court, the media, the legal profession and civil servants

*Law and Justice has also been unable to wholly shake off its reputation for euroscepticism, prompting fears in Brussels that Warsaw risks becoming an unreliable European partner

*Gross domestic product growth in 2005 was 3.2 per cent; in 2006, it was 5 per cent (government estimate)