Party Pullout Threatens Poland’s Ruling Coalition

The strongly market-oriented junior partner in Poland’s ruling coalition voted Sunday to pull its ministers out of the center-right government of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, threatening it with collapse.

The decision by leaders of the Freedom Union could lead to early parliamentary elections, which the ex-Communist Democratic Left Alliance would be favored to win, according to public opinion polls showing it with more support than the two coalition partners combined.

Parliamentary elections currently are not scheduled until late next year. That leaves the reform-oriented coalition time to implement measures to further restructure Poland’s economy if it can find a way to hang together--which clearly remains the goal of both parties.

The Freedom Union said after Sunday’s decision that it still hoped to reach a new coalition agreement with its stronger partner, Solidarity Election Action, an assortment of rightist political groups that emerged from the Solidarity union that led Poland’s 1980s democracy movement.

The partners have had a fractious relationship since they took power in the 1997 parliamentary elections, but the current crisis is the most serious they have faced. It was triggered by a dispute over control of the Warsaw city government but is rooted in differences over budget and tax policy. Another important factor is anger within Freedom Union over the inability of Solidarity Election Action to keep its members in line for key votes on economic reforms.

The crisis is widely seen as an attempt by Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz, who heads Freedom Union, to negotiate a better-functioning coalition. The risk is that the two sides will miscalculate and trigger early elections that neither wants.

It is possible that the Solidarity bloc could run a minority government with support in parliament on key votes from the Freedom Union, which is also rooted in the anti-Communist struggle that won democracy for Poland in 1989.

“We would not totally exclude the possibility of rebuilding the coalition,” Balcerowicz said Sunday. “But the talks would have to be quick and conclusive.”

Balcerowicz, 52, has been the coalition’s leading proponent of Poland taking whatever harsh medicine seems best for its economy, regardless of short-term pain or a political backlash from voters. A U.S.-trained economist, he is credited as the brains behind much of Poland’s success in its reforms of the 1990s but is criticized by his opponents as arrogant and politically insensitive.

Backers of decisive measures to sell off state industries, cut taxes and bring government spending under control say these steps are essential if Poland is to join the European Union within a few years.

In its decision Sunday, the executive council of the Freedom Union instructed its ministers, which also include well-respected Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, to submit their resignations today but remain in office as caretakers until a new government is formed.

Boguslaw Grabowski, an economist with Poland’s central bank, whose views on economic issues largely coincide with those of Balcerowicz, was proposed last week by Solidarity Election Action as a candidate for prime minister to replace Buzek, who has said he is willing to step down to save the coalition.