POLAND: Leading opposition politicians claim Lech Kaczynski is playing political games and manipulating smaller parties, writes Derek Scally
Polish president Lech Kaczynski has come under fire after calling a national television address, widely anticipated to result in a snap election, and then drawing back.
Political Poland held its breath for hours yesterday after senior government officials said the president was likely to dissolve the parliament because the deadline had expired for parliament to ratify the 2006 budget.
But Mr Kaczynski instead used the evening television address to say he saw no reason to dissolve parliament. He then gave his backing for a one-year toleration pact to prop up the minority government of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), headed by his twin brother Jaroslaw.
Yesterday, Polish newspapers and leading opposition politicians accused the president of playing political games and manipulating its pact partners, the Self Defence populist peasant party and the ultra-conservative League of Polish Families. "It makes no sense whatsoever to use this power of the president to get on television to confirm that he will not do something," said Mr Jaroslaw Walesa, an MP for the opposition Civic Platform (PO) in Gdansk. "What this speech has shown is that our president is very political strictly towards one particular political party."
The fall-out from Mr Kaczynski's speech is just the latest twist in the political drama that began on election night last September.
PiS won the poll, slipping past the PO in the last days of campaigning, but the two parties were unable to agree on a coalition government. PiS eventually took office as a minority government but agreed the toleration pact last week to end months of political limbo and get on with day-to-day politics.
The president's office brushed off criticism of his speech yesterday. "Mr president felt a duty to inform the Polish nation about his decision," said a spokesman. "In his statement Mr president pointed out all the reasons and circumstances of his decision, including his initiative to hold consultations with all main Polish political parties." But yesterday's events have left many commentators doubting Mr Kaczynski's ability to mediate effectively and non-politically in the future in the fractious world of Polish politics.
"The office of the president is not an independent institution anymore, it is an important element of PiS accumulating power," said Piotr Kaczynski (no relation), an analyst at the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP) in Warsaw.
"You don't call for a speech on public television if you have nothing to say. It was just to create political instability and to make sure that the junior pact members comply with everything the PiS wishes."
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother, has made no secret of his wish to win over the electorate of the two junior pact members. Recent opinion polls show that a snap election would be hazardous for their parliamentary survival.
When rumours began to circulate that the president would dissolve parliament, Andrzej Lepper, leader of the Self Defence party, called a press conference and promised to co-operate fully with PiS in the year-long toleration pact.
"The only way the PiS plays politics is to exert pressure and show power and intimidate its partners. This is why we couldn't join a coalition," said Mr Walesa.
Despite the political controversies, PiS remains top of the opinion polls. The new government's clean sweep approach to public life has been welcomed by voters jaded by corruption and dysfunctional state institutions under the previous post-communist government.
But financial and political analysts are already worried about the consequences of the political deal with Poland's most radical parties.
"At present, the two smaller parties in the stabilisation pact are certainly not strong enough to tell the Kaczynski brothers what to do," said political analyst Krzysztof Mularczyk to Radio Polonia. "But there is much concern that their social agenda may cost the budget several billion extra."
The League of Polish Families is calling for increased pensions, while Self Defence wants more spending on the unemployed.