No Solidarity-Communist Coalition, Walesa Affirms

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa told President Wojciech Jaruzelski on Tuesday that Solidarity is willing to form a government but remains firm in its refusal to join in a coalition with the Communists.

After meeting with Jaruzelski, who is in the process of choosing a premier to form Poland’s next government, Walesa made public a statement he had given to Jaruzelski declaring that the “bold solution” would be to let Solidarity form the government.

But while he noted that such a solution would be in keeping with Solidarity’s overwhelming support in recent elections, he admitted that the trade union movement is not ready to take over the government from top to bottom.

Path of Reform

“We are remaining an opposition to ensure that the government does not leave the reform path,” Walesa told reporters after the meeting with Jaruzelski. “It will be more comfortable for us in the opposition because we will focus on making sure that the path of reform is kept, and not on other things for which we are not yet mature.”

In the statement he gave Jaruzelski, Walesa said he will be forming a “shadow (opposition) Cabinet to prepare for the solution that sooner or later will become inevitable.”

He said Solidarity members of the National Assembly are free to take Cabinet posts in a new Communist-led government, but that they would do so as individuals.

“This will not mean Solidarity’s participation in government,” the statement said.

The Communists, led by Jaruzelski, have been proposing a grand coalition with Solidarity ever since the elections, which were an embarrassment for the Communists and a triumph for Solidarity. The trade union movement won 99 of 100 seats in the Senate, the upper house, and all of the 161 seats in the lower house, or Sejm, for which it was eligible to compete.

Solidarity has resisted the coalition proposal, arguing that the organization could be tarred by the new government’s mistakes, sharing the blame but not the power.

Some Solidarity activists have suggested that Solidarity should make a bid for the entire government, but the proposal has had a mixed reception.

Solidarity moderates, including Walesa and his leading strategist, Bronislaw Geremek, contend that Solidarity would be better off biding its time and learning the mechanics of government rather than rushing in without preparation. Some activists say that if the new government fails--and many expect it to fail within a year or two--Solidarity will then be in a more confident position.

The leading candidate for premier appears to be Wladislaw Baka, a party economist and longtime advocate of economic reform. It is widely assumed that the new government will be composed--more than ever before--of technical experts rather than party figures.

Jaruzelski, narrowly elected president last week at a joint session of the National Assembly, is expected to resign his party post at a Central Committee meeting Friday and Saturday.

Mieczyslaw Rakowski, the outgoing premier, appears to be among the leading candidates to replace him. Rakowski, whose 10 months in office have won him no applause from the public or political professionals, has been appealing to the conservative wing of the party, arguing that Poland’s demoralized Communists should work to strengthen the party’s position and shed its defeatist attitude.