Walesa Names Adversary to Form Government

President Lech Walesa on Friday nominated Bronislaw Geremek, a longtime adviser and more recently an adversary, to try to form Poland’s next government.

Geremek, who has been closely involved with Solidarity since the union was formed in 1980, represents the Democratic Union party, which finished in first place by a narrow margin in the Oct. 27 parliamentary elections.

Democratic Union won only 13% of the votes in the splintered voting, which saw 29 parties gain seats in Parliament. The former Communists ran second in the elections.

It may be difficult for Geremek to form a government that can win the fractured Parliament’s approval.

Geremek, 59, was the Solidarity group’s floor leader in the last Parliament. A professor of medieval French history, the scholarly Geremek was for years one of the handful of Solidarity “wise men” who were close advisers to Walesa.

Geremek, however, backed former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki last year in his run for the presidency against Walesa, and relations between the two longtime allies have chilled considerably.

On Thursday, Walesa held meetings with representatives from four center-right parties, whose bloc of votes seemed to indicate that they were in the commanding position to name a prime minister and form the government. They proposed lawyer Jan Olszewski for prime minister.

But Walesa surprised political observers by immediately calling a meeting with Mazowiecki, Geremek and Jacek Kuron, the leading figures in Democratic Union.

“Bronislaw Geremek has become the president’s candidate,” said presidential spokesman Andrzej Drzycimski. “Walesa hopes that in the next few days Prof. Geremek’s mission will lead to completing the Cabinet, which should reflect democratic changes under way in Poland.”

The move is also a surprise because the intellectual wing of Solidarity, generally represented by Democratic Union, had seemed so estranged from the right wing of Solidarity, which has tied itself closely to Walesa.