Poland's conservatives today picked their little known economic guru as candidate for prime minister rather than veteran party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who orchestrated their Sunday election victory.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, an advocate of cautious economic reform and a former chief of parliament's treasury committee, will now be tasked with building a coalition cabinet.
His Law and Justice party is set to form a government with the second biggest party, pro-business Civic Platform, which faces the difficult task of rejuvenating the economy and cutting 18 per cent unemployment after four years of leftist rule.
Mr Marcinkiewicz said he would strive for a quick compromise in government-building talks with Civic Platform, which reluctantly accepted their partners' choice.
"Compromise is vital to form a strong government. We will choose the best elements from Civic Platform's programme and from ours," he told public television in an interview.
"We must start work immediately." Mr Marcinkiewicz told private television TVN24: "We should be able to create the new government during the next three or four weeks."
Some analysts said the 45-year-old former physics teacher appeared to be a fill-in for Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who refused the position because his twin brother Lech is running in next month's presidential polls.
Mr Kaczynski, who says Poles may be wary of having identical twins as their president and prime minister, dismissed suggestions that Mr Marcinkiewicz could be pushed aside after the October presidential elections.