Never say never
The Rywingate affair, the economic crisis and now the fact that the president and prime minister have violated the constitution by authorising military participation in the Iraq adventure without parliamentary approval are all making the present political establishment look increasingly worn out. This is why it is worth looking a little beyond the horizon at who might benefit.
The existing parties are all variations on well-worn themes. The PO is just a diluted version of the UW; PiS a little more disciplined version of the AWS; and the LPR and Samoobrona are anti-system parties which can only flourish in hard times.
It's not surprising, therefore, to find prominent people coming together to try and instigate political reforms that might break the gridlock. That is what the petition in favour of replacing proportional representation with a majority voting system based on single-member constituencies is really about.
If change is to come, it must come from an outsider. Even so, that outsider has to be someone who has some name recognition and some experience. The days of people coming from absolutely nowhere seem to be over. It now takes time to establish a political career.
A name from the past worth making a note of is Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, one of the signatories of the electoral reform petition, currently the vice-president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She has been out of domestic politics for some time and has proved adept at fitting into the world of international finance. But her political and academic past together with her Christian convictions make her very much an interesting exception in the dreary world of banking.
Her career was rather typical of the early days of transformation. During those heady times it was possible to rise very fast because one was in the right place at the right time. She happened to be a specialist in financial law who worked closely with Lech Falandysz (then a key minister in President Lech Wałęsa's chancellery).
Gronkiewicz-Waltz's run for president in 1995 was dogged by the fact that she was standing against Wałęsa, the man who had given her the job of governor of the National Bank of Poland. The argument that she was stabbing her political godfather in the back was indeed a prime reason for her defeat that year. But there were others, such as the failure to persuade enough people on the centre-right to back her and the way that the media pointed to the impropriety of her doing the job at the NBP while campaigning for president. One of her objectives was to unite the right, but in effect she was perceived as disuniting it still further.
As a person working in international circles, Gronkiewicz-Waltz knows only too well how far the country must travel to attain western standards of public probity. She is aware that in the West the principle for politicians and public figures is "one strike and you're out."
Past experience will have convinced her that for the right to be successful it must balance religion and getting tough on law and order with sound market economics. Her economic views remain conservative and monetarist. She is convinced that the NBP and the Monetary Policy Council's major achievement is the reduction of inflation and the stability it has brought to the banking sector.
Gronkiewicz-Waltz's style contrasts sharply with the likes of Grzegorz Kołodko. She is much calmer and more collected. She always stresses that the key for the country is to reform its public finances, liberalise its labour market and make itself more attractive for investors. Unlike Kołodko, she understands that the impact of individual governments in a global world is limited and that you cannot rush around like a bull in a china shop, promising to remove all tax allowances.
The international experience Gronkiewicz-Waltz has would be a great asset at a time when we will be preparing to join the euro-zone and working to absorb EU funds. Working for a European body also makes her more sensitive on the issue of Europe vs. the United States. Instinctively, she will baulk at artificial divisions between the old and the new Europe. But she would equally and vigorously pursue the opportunities to limit the influence of the Franco-German axis.
For a right winger, Gronkiewicz-Waltz is surprisingly liberal on the issue of immigration. She believes there is an economic case for much greater migration into Europe in order to breathe life into its ageing populations. This will not make her popular with the xenophobic parts of the right, but will give her credibility in the centre.
Bored at the EBRD, Gronkiewicz-Waltz is keeping her options open on returning to politics. With her reputation enhanced by her time at the NBP followed by a spell in international finance, she is still young enough to return to the political fray. Being one of the few native politicians who understands the worlds of economics and finance may not, however, be a bonus in the short term. Reformers are on the back foot right now.
But times change. Market economics will come back into fashion. Former governors of the NBP may yet be called upon to do much more than just teach students and write books.
The existing parties are all variations on well-worn themes. The PO is just a diluted version of the UW; PiS a little more disciplined version of the AWS; and the LPR and Samoobrona are anti-system parties which can only flourish in hard times.
It's not surprising, therefore, to find prominent people coming together to try and instigate political reforms that might break the gridlock. That is what the petition in favour of replacing proportional representation with a majority voting system based on single-member constituencies is really about.
If change is to come, it must come from an outsider. Even so, that outsider has to be someone who has some name recognition and some experience. The days of people coming from absolutely nowhere seem to be over. It now takes time to establish a political career.
A name from the past worth making a note of is Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, one of the signatories of the electoral reform petition, currently the vice-president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She has been out of domestic politics for some time and has proved adept at fitting into the world of international finance. But her political and academic past together with her Christian convictions make her very much an interesting exception in the dreary world of banking.
Her career was rather typical of the early days of transformation. During those heady times it was possible to rise very fast because one was in the right place at the right time. She happened to be a specialist in financial law who worked closely with Lech Falandysz (then a key minister in President Lech Wałęsa's chancellery).
Gronkiewicz-Waltz's run for president in 1995 was dogged by the fact that she was standing against Wałęsa, the man who had given her the job of governor of the National Bank of Poland. The argument that she was stabbing her political godfather in the back was indeed a prime reason for her defeat that year. But there were others, such as the failure to persuade enough people on the centre-right to back her and the way that the media pointed to the impropriety of her doing the job at the NBP while campaigning for president. One of her objectives was to unite the right, but in effect she was perceived as disuniting it still further.
As a person working in international circles, Gronkiewicz-Waltz knows only too well how far the country must travel to attain western standards of public probity. She is aware that in the West the principle for politicians and public figures is "one strike and you're out."
Past experience will have convinced her that for the right to be successful it must balance religion and getting tough on law and order with sound market economics. Her economic views remain conservative and monetarist. She is convinced that the NBP and the Monetary Policy Council's major achievement is the reduction of inflation and the stability it has brought to the banking sector.
Gronkiewicz-Waltz's style contrasts sharply with the likes of Grzegorz Kołodko. She is much calmer and more collected. She always stresses that the key for the country is to reform its public finances, liberalise its labour market and make itself more attractive for investors. Unlike Kołodko, she understands that the impact of individual governments in a global world is limited and that you cannot rush around like a bull in a china shop, promising to remove all tax allowances.
The international experience Gronkiewicz-Waltz has would be a great asset at a time when we will be preparing to join the euro-zone and working to absorb EU funds. Working for a European body also makes her more sensitive on the issue of Europe vs. the United States. Instinctively, she will baulk at artificial divisions between the old and the new Europe. But she would equally and vigorously pursue the opportunities to limit the influence of the Franco-German axis.
For a right winger, Gronkiewicz-Waltz is surprisingly liberal on the issue of immigration. She believes there is an economic case for much greater migration into Europe in order to breathe life into its ageing populations. This will not make her popular with the xenophobic parts of the right, but will give her credibility in the centre.
Bored at the EBRD, Gronkiewicz-Waltz is keeping her options open on returning to politics. With her reputation enhanced by her time at the NBP followed by a spell in international finance, she is still young enough to return to the political fray. Being one of the few native politicians who understands the worlds of economics and finance may not, however, be a bonus in the short term. Reformers are on the back foot right now.
But times change. Market economics will come back into fashion. Former governors of the NBP may yet be called upon to do much more than just teach students and write books.
