Polish Communists’ Main Allies Balk on New Leader

The nomination of Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak for premier ran into serious trouble in the Polish National Assembly on Tuesday as the Communist Party’s key coalition partners rebelled, expressing no support for him.

A vote on Kiszczak’s candidacy had been expected Tuesday but was put off to today after the United Peasants’ Party, for years a reliable Communist ally, emerged from a meeting with no announcement on how the party would cast its 76 votes, which are essential if Kiszczak, now interior minister, is to be elected.

The Communist parliamentary group, and its newly rebellious allies, were meeting late into the night Tuesday in an attempt either to salvage Kiszczak’s candidacy or come up with an alternative.

Communist Party leader Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski, the outgoing premier, left a hospital bed to join the meeting. He was taken to the hospital, aides said, after feeling faint Tuesday morning at an anniversary observance of the Warsaw Uprising in World War II.

The continuing fracas of Polish politics has brought a steady battering to the Communists, who had hoped that bringing the Solidarity opposition into the National Assembly, through partially free elections, would buy time to shore itself up and deal with the country’s crisis-ridden economy.

Instead, the Communists have taken on several down-to-the-wire battles, including a one-vote margin in Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski’s election as president by the National Assembly, and now the apparent rejection of Jaruzelski’s choice for premier--possibly the most blatant parliamentary defiance of a Communist leader in East Bloc history.

It is noteworthy that much of the recent Communist embarrassment has stemmed not directly from the opposition, but from within the once tightly controlled ranks of Communist allies.

Solidarity, controlling 161 votes in the Sejm, as the lower house is known, has said it will vote against Kiszczak. That decision seemed to be sealed Tuesday with a one-line statement issued by Lech Walesa saying: “I am against Gen. Kiszczak’s candidacy for premier.”

The Communists hold 173 seats in the Sejm and must rely on their coalition partners, the Peasants, the Democratic Party and a small group of pro-Communist Catholics, if they are to put their candidate across.

Gasping for Air

Both the Peasants and Democrats have roots going back to prewar Poland. Both parties were leftist in their original orientation and, after being first suppressed by the Communists after World War II, they were re-formed and essentially subsumed by the Communists, who wanted a pliant illusion of a multi-party “national front” system. Now, as the Communists gasp for air like beached fish, both parties have been eager to distance themselves from their domineering partners in order to stake out a future for in the rapidly shifting political landscape.

Aleksander Benkowski, the Peasants’ parliamentary leader, told reporters that perhaps as many as 60 members of his own party were rebelling against Kiszczak. Other sources said up to 12 Communists had decided to vote against him.

The Peasants’ rebellion suggests the possibility of a Solidarity-Peasant Party alliance, which would give Solidarity a 237-223 margin in the Sejm--and possibly 28 votes more if the Democratic Party joined in, which seems likely. Solidarity already controls the Senate, the upper house of the National Assembly, 99 to 1.

Such an alliance would lead to increased pressure for a Solidarity government, although some key Solidarity leaders have resisted the idea in the past and the Communist authorities could be thrown into an even deeper crisis.

Upset Neighbors

Jaruzelski told Solidarity lawmakers last week that Poland’s Communist neighbors--the Soviet Union, East Germany and Czechoslovakia--would be deeply upset with a non-Communist, opposition government running Poland.

At a meeting of Solidarity lawmakers, convened while the Communist coalition went into its closed-door emergency session, longtime union activist Jan Litynski said the Peasants Party leadership was about to propose a Solidarity-led government, with parliamentary leader Bronislaw Geremek as premier and Kazimierz Olesiak as first deputy premier.

“The Communist coalition has collapsed after 40 years in power,” Litynski said, adding that the Peasants Party already had proposed a coalition with Solidarity.

“Such a coalition would have a majority in Parliament,” Litynski said, “so the last argument against a Solidarity-led government--that we lack a majority--falls.”

While the vote on Kiszczak was delayed, the National Assembly continued debate on the Polish economy, and the nation’s shoppers gazed with dismay at newly raised food prices--that is, in the few shops where food had not been cleaned out in anticipation of the government’s “marketization” plan.

Designed to replenish food store shelves by paying more to farm producers, the government’s plan sent meat prices skyrocketing. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of ham went from 1,600 zlotys ($1.92) to 6,000 ($7.22), an increase of 275%. Pork went up 288%. Prices of sugar, flour and butter increased by up to 56%.

Newspapers reported that sugar, salt, flour, butter and cheese were unavailable in large cities such as Wroclaw, Krakow, Lodz and Poznan.

The parliamentary debate on the economy was triggered by a vote to accept Rakowski’s resignation as premier. While Rakowski was resting in the hospital, his marketization plan was defended by his deputy, Ireneusz Sekula, who claimed that “the ship of the Polish economy is right on course.”

“It seems to me that the situation is exactly the opposite,” countered Solidarity deputy Ryszard Bugaj. “This ship is sinking.”

Another Solidarity deputy, Jan Furtak, said the price rises were “another sign of the authorities’ arrogance” and argued that state claims of launching a free market are contradicted by government procurers who dominate the meat processing industry and are free to set any price they choose.