Walesa Nominates a Radical Economist as His Premier

President Lech Walesa on Saturday named Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, a radical young economist, prime minister with a mission to push economic reforms and steer Poland to free parliamentary elections.

His selection ended weeks of speculation about who would succeed Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, now serving in a caretaker capacity.

Bielecki, a 39-year-old Solidarity deputy and longtime adviser to the trade union, said he will form a Cabinet in coming days and present it to Parliament, which must approve his nomination.

“I consider this a service to the state and service to Poland, and would like to end my service with free elections. I believe that somehow I’ll be able to make it through this period,” Bielecki told reporters.

His remarks indicated that he sees himself as a transitional leader until the elections, which are widely expected to be held next spring.

Walesa, as president, is head of state and commander of the military. The prime minister heads the government on a day-to-day basis.

If approved by Parliament, Bielecki will take over as premier from Mazowiecki, who resigned after a crushing defeat by Walesa and emigre businessman Stanislaw Tyminski in the first round of presidential elections last month.

The soft-spoken, bearded Bielecki was little known in Poland until Walesa named him earlier this month as a possible contender for the premiership.

Bielecki, a parliament deputy from Gdansk and head of a consulting company, was once part of the Solidarity underground. He is a leader of the Liberal-Democratic Congress, a small but influential political party devoted to development of private enterprise in Poland.

An economics graduate from Gdansk University who speaks fluent English, Bielecki became a Solidarity adviser shortly after the independent trade union was formed in 1980.

When the Communist authorities imposed martial law in 1980 to crush the union, Bielecki was fired from his job at a government industrial training center.

With a friend, he bought a truck and started a business transporting timber, becoming active at the same time in the Solidarity underground.

In 1985, he formed a consultancy firm, Doradca (Adviser), which gave jobs to many specialists dismissed from work under martial law. The firm quickly acquired prestige in Poland and abroad.

Other members of the Liberal-Democratic Congress, including Janusz Lewandowski and Sen. Andrzej Machalski, are expected to be named to posts in Bielecki’s government. Together, they are expected to push ahead aggressively in transforming the economy.