Solidarity Bids to Form Government : Polish Union Paper’s Proposal Reportedly Under Consideration

Solidarity publicly proposed today to form Poland’s first non-communist government since the 1940s, and political sources said the suggestion might be accepted under certain conditions.

The official Solidarity newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza made the proposal as efforts continued behind the scenes to resolve a political impasse over this week’s election to fill the powerful new post of president of Poland.

“Your president (for) our premier,” the newspaper said in a front-page headline.

Call for Troop Withdrawal

In a separate development, President Bush told Gazeta Wyborcza and other Polish papers that the estimated 45,000 Soviet troops in Poland should be withdrawn. Bush begins a three-day visit to Poland on Sunday.

Solidarity has emerged as kingmaker in the presidential election, in which the ruling Communist-dominated coalition is deeply divided and has so far failed to agree on a candidate who could win a majority in the 560-seat National Assembly.

The free trade union has 260 seats in the Assembly, which is expected to vote on the presidency Thursday or Friday. Union leader Lech Walesa has said he will back Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak.

Kiszczak was proposed by Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski, who announced he will not run Friday. But Jaruzelski is being urged by powerful forces in the party and the army to change his mind.

Adam Michnik, Gazeta Wyborcza’s editor and a top Solidarity strategist, wrote that a Solidarity prime minister and a Communist president would give Poland stability as it faced rapid political change and an economic catastrophe that is threatening to cause a popular “explosion.”

Solidarity spokesman Janusz Onyszkiewicz declined to comment on the proposal, saying it was not official.

A senior politician in the ruling coalition said the idea had been sympathetically discussed by some coalition leaders. He said they suggested Prof. Bronislaw Geremek, Solidarity’s top political strategist and leader of its parliamentary caucus, for prime minister.

No Objections From Moscow

In Paris, a top Soviet official said Moscow had no objections to a Solidarity government in Poland.

Bush, in the interview published in Polish newspapers, said a Soviet troop withdrawal should start the removal of all foreign troops from Europe, but he offered no new cuts in U.S. forces there.

“It is my opinion that there is no danger of Poland being invaded from the West, and I think that no one in Poland imagines or thinks that such a danger exists,” Bush said.