President Kwaśniewski calls on left wingers to fight election on united front

President Aleksander Kwaśniewski wants left wing parties to form a united front in next year's parliamentary elections. In an interview for TVN 24 the president listed Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Polish Social Democracy (SdPl) and Labor Union (UP) as parties that ought to consolidate before the elections. He said he would try to persuade the parties to do so, but only if the parties got rid of people acting contrary to the benefit of the Left. He was unwilling, however, to reveal whom precisely he had in mind. Kwaśniewski believes that next year's parliamentary elections should take place in spring, a few months before the parliamentary elections and that would mean the Sejm would have to decide on self-dismissal. Asked to evaluate the new government the president said he gives it a B grade. "If the government worked out a good healthcare bill then I could grade it better," he said. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 5) D.W.