Polish Leader Calls for Urgent Talks on Crisis

Expressing concern over “the deepening instability of Poland’s political and economic situation,” President Wojciech Jaruzelski called Tuesday for an urgent meeting of the country’s key political forces to resolve a mounting crisis over the choice of a new government.

Jaruzelski’s appeal for the meeting came as Solidarity leader Lech Walesa edged closer to becoming an open candidate for the premiership of Poland, saying that Solidarity would be willing to form a government that would leave Communists in control of the key defense and interior ministries.

Walesa, speaking to journalists outside his home in Gdansk, said he does not want the post of premier. But he added, “If society wants it, I must do it. I would prefer to have someone else.”

The pressure mounted on Polish authorities to accept a Solidarity-led government with the announcement Monday by Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak, the newly elected premier, that he was having trouble forming a government in the face of Solidarity’s refusal to join a “grand coalition” and the likelihood that most of his appointments would be rejected by the rebellious Parliament.

Uncertain Path

Kiszczak’s surprise move represented the first time that an East Bloc premier has withdrawn from office, unable to form a government, and it marked a further step down the increasingly uncertain road of political reform in Communist Europe.

A Solidarity-led government would be another stunning first, but it remains far from certain that such a bold step would be accepted by Polish Communists or--perhaps more important--the Soviet Union. On Monday, a commentary in Pravda, the official Soviet Communist Party daily, accused Walesa of undermining efforts to ease political tensions in Poland.

Kiszczak, in his announcement, suggested that Jaruzelski appoint in his place Roman Malinowski, the leader of the United Peasants’ Party, a partner in the Communist coalition. But that suggestion drew no enthusiasm Tuesday, either from Solidarity or from the divided, 76-member United Peasants parliamentary delegation.

Decision Praised

Walesa praised Kiszczak’s withdrawal decision as “manly” but said the country’s shortest-reigning premier had made a “mistake” by suggesting Malinowski, whose party has been a generally pliable Communist ally since the late 1940s.

Walesa said discussions of a new coalition with the United Peasants, begun late last week, would continue because such an alliance “is today the only chance to change the course of events dangerous for the country.”

The Communists, entrenched and paralyzed by their own power blocs, are incapable of carrying out economic reform, Walesa charged. He urged that Solidarity, in a coalition with the minor parties in the Communist alliance, be given control of the economic ministries in order to guarantee the reform process and to give it public backing.

“The most important ministries, which are the base of the physical continuity of the state, should stay in the hands of the Communist Party,” he said.

Last week, Walesa called for a wholly Solidarity government, and his statement Tuesday seemed directed at striking a formula that he hopes might be palatable to Polish Communists and to Moscow. Discussions between Solidarity and the most rebellious elements of the United Peasants have focused on an arrangement in which Solidarity would name the premier, the United Peasants would appoint the minister of foreign affairs and the Communists would hold onto posts dealing with Polish-Soviet security affairs.

The United Peasants and the Democratic Party hold 22% of the Sejm, or the lower house of Parliament, giving them the key votes in the balance between Solidarity, with 35%, and the Communists, who hold 38%. This new influence, impossible in previous parliaments in which the Communists were unopposed, has prompted the restive and generally younger members of both parties, who are looking toward future elections, to distance themselves from the Communists.

Malinowski, 54, has headed the United Peasants since 1981 and is considered part of the old guard. He was among 33 unopposed “national list” candidates who were rejected by the voters in June elections.

Malinowski was in East Berlin on Tuesday and has not responded to Kiszczak’s suggestion that he take the premiership. But his own party floor leader for the Sejm, Aleksander Bentkowski, came out against him.

“Social feelings can be calmed down only by a premier who is from the ranks of the opposition or who is picked by the opposition,” Bentkowski said.

Jaruzelski’s call for a meeting to resolve the crisis was issued in a short statement from the Polish news agency PAP, which said the president had urged that the meeting be convened as soon as possible.

Some Solidarity sources said Walesa is expected to come to Warsaw today for a meeting with Jaruzelski, but this could not be confirmed.

During the so-called round-table discussions that preceded Solidarity’s return to legal status and the elections in June, key figures from the Communist and opposition sides, usually including Kiszczak and Walesa, met in a government villa near Warsaw to hammer out compromises on issues that often stalled the talks. Jaruzelski appears to be hoping that another such meeting may result in another compromise.