Government and macro

   The popularity of the centrist Freedom Union (UW) party declined steeply after it quit the ruling centre-right coalition nearly two weeks ago, according to a survey by the Social Opinion Research Center (OBOP). The poll, conducted on a group of 1,019 adults June 10-12 just days after the collapse of the UW-Solidarity Election Action (AWS) government, showed the former governing partner's support drop to 8% from 13%. Support for the right-wing AWS, which now runs a minority government, edged up to 17% from 16%, according to the OBOP poll. The survey also suggested the leftist opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) would probably win the next parliamentary election slated for 2001. Forty-two percent of Poles, unchanged from the previous poll, favored the ex-communist party. The opposition Peasants Party (PSL), which ruled in coalition with the SLD in 1993-97, was supported by 9%, up 2% from May.

   Under a pact reached last week, the roughly 10,000 Jews who still live in Poland stand to get back $1.5 billion-$2 billion in communal property first taken by the Nazis and then seized by the communists, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC). Thirty percent of the properties will go back to 19 Jewish communities where enough Jews still live to derive benefit from them, said WJC Executive Vice President Elan Steinberg. The remaining 70% will go to a foundation to be run by the WJC and the Polish Jewish community. Communal property is the term used for synagogues, religious schools, hospitals, cemeteries and the like. Many of the facilities were converted to other uses after being seized. Some, including a large Jewish religious school which is now a medical school, will probably not be returned, Steinberg said, and compensation will likely be paid instead. Polish Jews have already recovered some of the community's old properties, including the site of their synagogue in Gdansk, but in many cases they face opposition from locals who feel the sites have become theirs by force of custom.