Markets ponder Kaczmarek ouster
With the opposition baying in the Sejm last week for the sacrifice of Infrastructure Minister Marek Pol over the new motorway tax on car owners, the heat was also turned up on the future of Kaczmarek.
"I don't deal with rumors, so if that's why you're calling about then we have nothing to talk about," Kaczmarek said. "I am not prepared to discuss this issue with you."
During Kwaśniewski's visit to the U.S. in July, President George W. Bush, asked for greater openness from Poland to U.S. investment, a statement widely interpreted as a criticism of the slowdown in privatization advocated by Kaczmarek. Market rumors allege that Kwaśniewki is putting pressure on Prime Minister Leszek Miller to oust Kaczmarek as part of a strategy to upgrade Polish-American economic relations.
While the presidential palace offered no response as the WBJ went to press, no direct denial of the rumors was offered by government spokesman Michał Tober. "I know no details of the alleged dismissal of Mr. Kaczmarek and therefore have nothing to comment," Tober said.
Kaczmarek's political opponents are dismayed by the sluggish pace of privatization under the current government, which has only raised zł. 870 million ($212 million) of its zł. 6.7 billion ($1.6 billion) revenue target this year, leading to an escalation in public sector debt, which currently stands at 49.8%.
"The rather mechanical and politically motivated policy of distrust for the previous government's privatization plans not only lowered privatization revenues and increased public sector debt but was also bad for the companies that were to be privatized," said Wiesław Walendziak, a member of Parliament for the Law and Justice party (PiS) and head of the Sejm treasury committee. "The government will not obtain a better price for these companies, and in some cases their value will diminish."
Government watchers are divided on whether the government can afford the political embarrassment of ousting Kaczmarek, who previously served as privatization minister and economy minister under Prime Minister Włodzimierz Cimosiewicz from 1993 to 1997.
Additionally the government last week approved the minister's plan for the sale of Poland's No. 2 oil refinery Rafineria Gdańska to a consortium of U.K. investor Rotch Energy and Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen (PKN Orlen), Poland's largest oil company, which seems to underpin the minister's position, commented a leading political analyst.
"This seems unlikely in the context of last week's decision on PKN Orlen, which was Kaczmarek's concept and seems to indicate approval for his plans," he said. "I also don't think that the government would risk a move of this type before the local elections."
But one of Warsaw's most influential key economy watchers, who asked not to be named, insisted Kaczmarek's head is on the line.
"This is one helluva lonely man," the source said. "Definite fissures are appearing in the government and he is going to disappear into one of them. Even people in government think that. It's all about the complete and abject failure of privatization. He is not even saying things to try and please the liberal democratic wing of the party."
- Staff writer
