Buzek quickly appoints new ministers
The Freedom Union (UW) finally broke with the coalition government June 6 after rejecting Marian Krzaklewski, Solidarity Election Action's (AWS) leader, as its candidate to replace Jerzy Buzek as prime minister.
Since that day, Buzek, now head of the minority AWS government, has begun to make decisions at an accelerated pace. After accepting the resignations of three UW ministers he quickly nominated their replacements, including AWS-backed Jaroslaw Bauc, the former deputy finance minister and now successor to his previous boss Leszek Balcerowicz.
Initially, negotiations between the two partners to save the coalition looked promising. "I had some insight into the negotiations and I was convinced that a compromise was possible," Wieslaw Walendziak, AWS deputy and former head of the prime minister's office told the Business Journal on June 8. According to Walendziak, negotiators were close to reaching an agreement on the budget deficit for 2001. "1.9% was really acceptable for both sides even though UW proposed 1.2% and AWS 2.2% at the start," he said. But before a compromise could be reached on the coalition's program, UW's leaders announced that they wanted to discuss candidates for prime minister. "On the critical night of June 5, Krzaklewski was ready to withdraw his candidacy after he learned that UW wouldn't accept him," Walendziak said. "But now I have the impression that at the time, UW was already working according to some kind of a scenario whose consequences they're only beginning to understand."
On the morning of June 6, Krzaklewski waited in vain for UW's leaders to continue negotiating the coalition's future. In the end, the UW board decided to leave the coalition. Five unionists voted against the withdrawal, including Justice Minister Hanna Suchocka and Bogdan Borusewicz, the deputy interior affairs minister. Nevertheless, a few AWS representatives remained optimistic last week that the coalition could be revived. But Jerzy Wierchowicz, the UW parliamentary club's head, said that one cannot speak about birthdays at a funeral.
"During that conflict, the influence of those in the UW who were pushing toward a coalition with post-communists and those within AWS who treated cooperation with the UW as a betrayal of ideals has grown," Walendziak said. "In my opinion, it won't be possible to bring those two groups together again."
After leaving the coalition, Balcerowicz said that UW would support the minority cabinet in the Sejm in all its initiatives intended to strengthen the state. The current minority government is supported by 186 out of 460 Sejm deputies, and will need all of UW's support to push through the 2001 budget. According to Walendziak, however, UW support for the budget is questionable. "The current government will work only until spring and implement earlier coalition agreements with some support from UW," he said. "But when it comes to voting on the budget I'm afraid that emotions and conflicts will prevail, no matter how good the budget will be."
If the budget is rejected, President Aleksander Kwasniewski can dissolve Parliament and call earlier parliamentary elections in the spring. But if the UW supports the budget, there's still a chance for the minority government to last until the end of its term in fall 2001.
