Few surprises as Prime Minister-elect Miller reveals his new Cabinet

Prime Minister-elect Leszek Miller yesterday unveiled his new cabinet. As had been widely expected, the leaders of the two other parties making up the coalition will become deputy Prime Ministers. Marek Pol of the Labor Union (UP) will be in charge of the newly-created Infrastructure Ministry, while Jaroslaw Kalinowski of the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) will be Agriculture Minister. A third deputy Prime Minister will be Marek Belka from Miller's own party, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). As Finance Minister, Belka will be responsible for dealing with the public budget crisis. Former Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz will be Foreign Minister. The only real surprise member of Miller's team is his Justice Minister, Barbara Piwnik, who as a judge has made a name for herself for her uncompromising treatment of serious offenders. The daily Zycie comments that her appointment may be linked to the Foreign Debt Servicing Fund (FOZZ) affair. Her new duties will oblige Piwnik to end her involvement, causing a further serious delay to one of the most complex and important cases in modern Polish legal history. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 4; Zycie, pp.1, 12, 13, 21) M.K.