Give Kaczmarek the boot

One has to wonder what Prime Minister Leszek Miller thinks about the performance of his treasury minister, Wiesław Kaczmarek. Surely he can't applaud Kaczmarek's ham-fisted tactics, which continue to generate bad press and ill will for his government, week in and week out. Not that Miller isn't capable of stirring up bad press on his own. But at a time when the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) needs to make major headway on European Union accession talks, the last thing Miller needs is a top minister scoffing at the very organization he's under pressure to conclude sensitive negotiations with. Kaczmarek's handling of the Eureko affair and his de facto privatization slowdown is a direct reflection of Miller's rule. Whatever Miller believes, he has to realize that Kaczmarek is a dinosaur and therefore a liability. The result of the treasury's warmed-over communism makes potential investors cringe and delays much-needed restructuring and modernization of numerous state-owned companies. Investors, both foreign and domestic, and the EU do not see Poland as someone they can, or want to, do business with. So much for SLD's commitment to the economy.

For his part, Kaczmarek makes no attempt to convince anyone otherwise. On the contrary, Eureko, the Dutch insurer that reached an agreement with the previous government - twice - to take a controlling stake in Poland's top insurer, PZU, is treated with contempt for assuming that it could be allowed to run one of the nation's leading financial institutions. After Kaczmarek moved to quash the deal in December, Eureko sought the support of the EC's commissioner for enlargement, Guenter Verheugen. In Warsaw last week, Verheugen withheld comment on the affair, but earlier his spokesman said the EU is hoping for a quick resolution. Economy Minister Jacek Piechota also said Poland would concede control of PZU to Eureko. Kaczmarek lashed out, saying that "a request to carry out the agreement to sell a majority stake in PZU to Eureko is tantamount to calling for my dismissal."

Now there's an idea. Worse things could happen to this country than for Kaczmarek to be recalled from his post and replaced with someone who realizes that being pro-European and pro-business is also pro-Poland. Kaczmarek also claimed that "the investor rejects talks," and that "the treasury is ready to seek solutions but the investor shows no willingness to do so." How conveniently the minister seems to forget that "the investor" already has an agreement with the Polish government - signed last year. But Eureko is just one example of the treasury minister's behind-the-times approach to dealing with investors and sell-offs of Polish companies in general. His vision to consolidate the nation's remaining hulking state-owned firms - backed by your taxes - in hopes of making them competitive once Poland joins the EU is a throwback to communism. These companies need leadership, restructuring and know-how now, not state-appointed managers and pie-in-the-sky plans that in the end will only make them weak monopolies. Weak monopolies that, when Poland joins the EU, will be buried by Western competition. Kaczmarek might be consolidating his empire but he's doing it at Poland's expense. The man needs to go. And the sooner the better.