Crisis in coalition deepens as Freedom Union declines invitation to negotiate

Members of the Solidarity Election Action (AWS) tried all day yesterday to cajole their junior coalition partner Freedom Union (UW) into talks on saving the government, but to no avail. UW has reiterated that it is irrelevant to sign new agreements with AWS when past experience has shown that they [AWS] would not adhere to them. According to UW spokesperson Andrzej Potocki, the decision of his party to empower its national convention, slated for Sunday, to withdraw UW ministers from the government was still binding. In related news, Gazeta Wyborcza has learned that UW leader Leszek Balcerowicz forwarded a four-paged memorandum to his AWS counterpart Marian Krzaklewski outlining the economic projects that the government should have been undertaken urgently. Yesterday President Aleksander Kwasniewski is believed to have told Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek to find a quick solution to the impasse in the coalition which is beginning to have an adverse effect on the country, particularly on the economy. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 1) S.M.