Polish Leader Gives Up, Can’t Form Coalition

Poland’s Communist prime minister said today that he could not form a government and was handing the task to the leader of the United Peasants’ Party, a small non-communist movement.

Czeslaw Kiszczak, who has tried without success to form an administration since he was appointed Aug. 2, said in a statement that he was giving the task to Roman Malinowski, leader of the United Peasants’ Party.

“A new situation has emerged where I see a chance of Roman Malinowski forming a new government in which representatives of all forces in the Parliament would be included,” Kiszczak said.

Kiszczak did not explicitly say that he was resigning his post as prime minister. But his statement appeared to make clear that he would not present a government for parliamentary confirmation later this month with himself at its head.

Kiszczak said his efforts to form a government had been complicated by the proposal of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa last week that the opposition join forces with the United Peasants’ Party and another small party, the Democratic Party, in a non-communist coalition.

Kiszczak has spent the last two weeks trying to coax Solidarity into a “grand coalition” government that would calm public anger at food price increases of up to 500% that were imposed Aug. 1.

But Walesa refused to support Kiszczak, saying the former interior minister was too tainted in the public eye because of the prominent role he played in suppressing Solidarity under martial law in 1981. The union was relegalized in April.

Alexander Bentkowski, leader of the 76 parliamentary deputies of the United Peasants’ Party, said earlier today that Solidarity, the UPP and the Democratic Party were on the verge of agreeing on how to distribute ministries in a government led by non-communists.