Bielecki Approved as Polish Premier, Vows to Push Reform

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, a businessman backed by President Lech Walesa, easily won Parliament’s approval as Poland’s prime minister Friday and pledged to risk unpopular decisions to achieve a market economy.

Bielecki, who at age 39 will be the youngest prime minister in postwar Polish history, was confirmed by a Parliament vote of 276-58, with 52 abstentions.

Walesa, who designated Bielecki to form a “government of experts” a week ago, smiled and clapped from the gallery. He was occupying his official seat in Parliament for the first time since being sworn in Dec. 22 as Poland’s first popularly elected head of state.

Bielecki has said he expects his government to be a transitional one pending free parliamentary elections, which could be held as early as this spring.

“My government will keep in mind the balance sheet of successes and failures of our predecessors,” Bielecki told Parliament before the vote. “We want to be a government of continuation as well as breakthrough.”

Bielecki, who hauled timber before starting a consulting business that employed dismissed Solidarity activists, is a leader of the Liberal-Democratic Congress, a small party devoted to developing private enterprise.

He replaces Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the East Bloc’s first non-Communist government head. Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz, architect of an unpopular economic reform plan, is to retain his post under Bielecki.

Those who voted against Bielecki’s candidacy expressed opposition to his vow to continue the general direction of the unpopular reforms, supported by Western financiers and economists.

The Peasants Party charged that Bielecki’s policy will not bail out farmers threatened by removal of guaranteed prices for their products and cuts in subsidies.

Bielecki said, however, that “unpopular decisions will have to (be taken to) provide the results that are desired by society.”