Editor's note: Forget the polls and get down to business

The view after parliamentary elections unfortunately closely resembles the sad scenario I drafted in last week's editorial. We already know the winner, but we don't yet know how they are going to govern, nor what kind of economic program they will implement. The winning parties - Law and Justice (PiS) and Civic Platform (PO) - didn't manage to reach an agreement within the last week. Instead of conducting a reasoned debate on their respective economic programs in the shadow of Ministerial cabinets, they are still in the limelight conducting electoral campaigns.

Instead of an agreement, we have wars of words and academic disputes. No concretes. And the clock is ticking.

Unfortunately, the politicians who won the elections are still running their campaigns instead of getting down to work. After parliamentary elections, the time has come for presidential ones. For weeks now everybody knows only two candidates stand a real chance of being elected: Donald Tusk - the representative of PO - and Lech Kaczyński from PiS, who is implacably chasing his competitor. As it was proved by the outcome of parliamentary elections, the poll figures can unexpectedly swap places in the last days before the elections. Thus, instead of counting possible 2006 budget savings, PiS leaders are counting the votes they could take away from Donald Tusk on Sunday. They are scared stiff of any declarations and concrete statements, especially those that could unveil their liberal countenance.

What worries me most is the uncertain future of privatizations in Poland. Although in some cases the party negates its own assertions - one day saying, for instance, that they want to keep 100-percent state control over LOT, and the next day that they will only keep 50 percent plus one share - one thing is sure: PiS' program opens the way to very high state interventionism in the economy. And this is not a good omen.

I hope that as soon as the presidential battle calms down, PiS will reach an agreement with PO and won't try to heal the economy on its own. The question is whether the dish made of conservative and liberal ingredients and served by the new government, will turn out to be edible.

Eliza Durka
Editor-in-chief