When comrades fall out
The SLD was formed as a compromise between former activists from the student ZSP and the PZPR apparatus. The young Turks were led by Olek Kwaniewski. The old guard by Leszek Miller. It was always an uneasy truce between the two. The former wanted to copy the west, and the latter wanted to preserve as much of the past as possible.
The show stayed on the road for two reasons. First of all, both groups were treated like pariahs at the beginning of the 1990s. Second, the SLD quickly became successful, and there were lots of jobs, contracts and political successes to go round to keep both groups happy.
Now that the SLD is lumbered with trying to be a government at a difficult time in the transformation process, the tensions are back with a vengeance. Kwaniewski and his people are unhappy with Miller and vice versa. The president's men and women grouped in Stowarzyszenie Ordynacka (formed by former ZSP members) see Miller's government as weak and heavy-footed. Miller and his SLD apparatchiks are annoyed at Kwaniewski for considering the creation of a new party and his lack of enthusiasm for leftist slogans.
Divisions in Polish politics do not really run along ideological lines. The only social cleavage in the 1990s that really existed was between those who back in the 80s supported Solidarnoć and those who stayed in the communist camp. In both camps you find advocates of liberal economics and statist socialism. A recent example of this phenomenon came during the debate in the Sejm over the budget when the PiS introduced a motion to increase the hypothecated health tax.
The fragmentation which occurred in the Solidarnoć camp had little to do with ideology but all to do with personality clashes and the bitter struggle of various groups of friends and relatives for wealth and power. It was so bloody because of the relative political inexperience and feeling of moral righteousness of those concerned.
What's new is that the process of fragmentation has now reached the, until now disciplined, post-communists. Faced with governing the country and the onslaught of anti-system parties, such as the LPR and Samoobrona, the comrades are beginning to fall out big time. Miller and his people want to go and capitalise on nostalgia for the old times in order to push back Lepper's tide. Kwaniewski wants to unite his Stowarzyszenie Ordynacka cronies, Gazeta Wyborcza and its party (UW) and parts of the PO into one centre-party which is to stabilise the political scene in Poland.
The prospects for such a party on the surface seem good. There will be lots of sympathy expressed by business and the media. The church will stay neutral. But that's where the advantages stop and problems start:
" It will be perceived as a party of the elite and of the wealthy. At a time of general dissatisfaction and real hardship this is a serious fault.
" The centrist road is at best a highway to the balance of power. Centre parties are very rarely dominant and over time become discredited for their constant changes in alliances and tactics. Their rootless nature is often their undoing.
" The formation of a party around just one man, however good a politician he may be, is fraught with dangers. No one stays popular forever, especially if he forms his own party. The case of Dr. Olechowski should prove a cautionary tale of how all politicians have their sell-by dates.
Creating a party around Kwaniewski is simply a way back from the dead for UW people and for those wanting to ditch the sinking PO. It is also a new lifeboat for those in the SLD smart enough to realise that Miller is unlikely to win again.
The concern is that such a party will fan the flames of the anti-system radicals in Samoobrona and the LPR without creating anything likely to last. It will be very difficult to persuade people that figures such as Dariusz Rosati, Ryszard Kalisz and Barbara Labuda are really credible alternatives to Miller's SLD.
A centre party is probably only one very small part of the answer to the crisis in Poland's political scene. The country needs a viable left and right as well as a centre. It is the shortage of a credible right and a non-communist, genuinely social democratic, left which is at the heart of the problem and which is creating so much room for the populists from Samoobrona and the LPR.
It is by no means certain that Kwaniewski will form his party. He may decide to do battle inside the SLD, hoping that Miller can be deposed. This is unlikely to succeed for two reasons. First, Miller will not give up easily. Second, by the time he is deposed, the SLD banner may be as used up as was AWS. Some new formation may become a necessity.
The show stayed on the road for two reasons. First of all, both groups were treated like pariahs at the beginning of the 1990s. Second, the SLD quickly became successful, and there were lots of jobs, contracts and political successes to go round to keep both groups happy.
Now that the SLD is lumbered with trying to be a government at a difficult time in the transformation process, the tensions are back with a vengeance. Kwaniewski and his people are unhappy with Miller and vice versa. The president's men and women grouped in Stowarzyszenie Ordynacka (formed by former ZSP members) see Miller's government as weak and heavy-footed. Miller and his SLD apparatchiks are annoyed at Kwaniewski for considering the creation of a new party and his lack of enthusiasm for leftist slogans.
Divisions in Polish politics do not really run along ideological lines. The only social cleavage in the 1990s that really existed was between those who back in the 80s supported Solidarnoć and those who stayed in the communist camp. In both camps you find advocates of liberal economics and statist socialism. A recent example of this phenomenon came during the debate in the Sejm over the budget when the PiS introduced a motion to increase the hypothecated health tax.
The fragmentation which occurred in the Solidarnoć camp had little to do with ideology but all to do with personality clashes and the bitter struggle of various groups of friends and relatives for wealth and power. It was so bloody because of the relative political inexperience and feeling of moral righteousness of those concerned.
What's new is that the process of fragmentation has now reached the, until now disciplined, post-communists. Faced with governing the country and the onslaught of anti-system parties, such as the LPR and Samoobrona, the comrades are beginning to fall out big time. Miller and his people want to go and capitalise on nostalgia for the old times in order to push back Lepper's tide. Kwaniewski wants to unite his Stowarzyszenie Ordynacka cronies, Gazeta Wyborcza and its party (UW) and parts of the PO into one centre-party which is to stabilise the political scene in Poland.
The prospects for such a party on the surface seem good. There will be lots of sympathy expressed by business and the media. The church will stay neutral. But that's where the advantages stop and problems start:
" It will be perceived as a party of the elite and of the wealthy. At a time of general dissatisfaction and real hardship this is a serious fault.
" The centrist road is at best a highway to the balance of power. Centre parties are very rarely dominant and over time become discredited for their constant changes in alliances and tactics. Their rootless nature is often their undoing.
" The formation of a party around just one man, however good a politician he may be, is fraught with dangers. No one stays popular forever, especially if he forms his own party. The case of Dr. Olechowski should prove a cautionary tale of how all politicians have their sell-by dates.
Creating a party around Kwaniewski is simply a way back from the dead for UW people and for those wanting to ditch the sinking PO. It is also a new lifeboat for those in the SLD smart enough to realise that Miller is unlikely to win again.
The concern is that such a party will fan the flames of the anti-system radicals in Samoobrona and the LPR without creating anything likely to last. It will be very difficult to persuade people that figures such as Dariusz Rosati, Ryszard Kalisz and Barbara Labuda are really credible alternatives to Miller's SLD.
A centre party is probably only one very small part of the answer to the crisis in Poland's political scene. The country needs a viable left and right as well as a centre. It is the shortage of a credible right and a non-communist, genuinely social democratic, left which is at the heart of the problem and which is creating so much room for the populists from Samoobrona and the LPR.
It is by no means certain that Kwaniewski will form his party. He may decide to do battle inside the SLD, hoping that Miller can be deposed. This is unlikely to succeed for two reasons. First, Miller will not give up easily. Second, by the time he is deposed, the SLD banner may be as used up as was AWS. Some new formation may become a necessity.
