Hypocrisy disguised as virtue
Despite the devastation resulting from the political hurricane that has once again hit the ruling coalition of Solidarity Election Action (AWS) and the Freedom Union (UW), there are strong indications that it will survive. In the long run, though, the UW has demonstrated that it's capable of damaging the only coalition attempting to implement bold economic reforms to defend its special interests. What many commentators call political blackmail, UW leaders continue to describe as the last means available to discipline their AWS partners.
The UW has proved several times that it doesn't feel obliged to support issues important to AWS. This was the case last year when an anticommunist act submitted by the AWS was rejected not only by the opposition but also by UW deputies. Without the support of the unionist base that Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's government can rely on, thousands of miners, railway workers, and nurses could be on the streets at any moment.
It's almost symbolic that the current negotiations between the two ruling partners have been hosted by Longin Komolowski, AWS deputy prime minister and labor minister, who has made dozens of phone calls to various trade union leaders daily and is often referred to as the government's "fireman." If the present course of action gets out of hand and UW backs out of the coalition, it's unlikely that the AWS minority government would survive for long. And earlier elections mean an almost certain victory for the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), who have already declared that they would not allow for the revolutionary tax changes and reprivatization act necessary for the swift development of the economy.
Is the support of the budget and other political guarantees from insubordinate AWS deputies the only reason that UW is risking such irreversible damage to Poland's political scene? Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz's demand to dismiss Warsaw's Gmina Centrum administrator Andrzej Herman, whose nomination by Buzek was the very spark that ignited the conflict, has not changed. The question as to why that dismissal is so important to the UW leader remains unanswered. Herman, despite his initial declarations, did not reveal any examples of corruption in the gmina and instead sent documents describing potential legal abuses to the Interior Ministry. If Warsaw's Gmina Centrum is just the tip of the corruption iceberg, then the current storm may affect the entire coalition.
Such a scenario would prove how empty all the words about the well-being of the state are. One of the most prominent living Polish writers, Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, said that civil courage, as opposed to bravery on the battlefield, is a virtue that most Poles lack. Voters are already sending the message that they would rather support openly cynical politicians than vote for hypocrisy disguised as virtue.
