Post by Moses on Oct 31, 2005 16:37:17 GMT -5
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seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Poland_Politics.html
Monday, October 31, 2005 · Last updated 12:33 p.m. PT
Conservatives take power in Poland
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, seventh left, gestures during a group photo with the country's new cabinet after the new government's swearing in ceremony in Warsaw, Poland, Monday Oct. 31, 2005. Poland will be governed by a minority cabinet as a result of the Sept. 25 general election. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
WARSAW, Poland -- A new conservative government with a pro-American stance took over Monday from former communists in Poland - although whether the new team will extend the country's deployment of 1,500 troops in Iraq remains unclear.
New Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz will lead with a minority in parliament after his Law and Justice party failed to strike a coalition deal with fellow conservatives from Civic Platform.
The two parties won a combined majority and swept the ex-communist government of Prime Minister Marek Belka from power in the Sept. 25 election. But the one-time allies fell out over the division of top posts and their differing economic and social policies. Law and Justice favors more social welfare and Civic Platform wanted to cut spending.
Marcinkiewicz pointed to the presence of nonparty members in the Cabinet, including Foreign Minister Stefan Meller, Finance Minister Teresa Lubinska and Health Minister Zbigniew Religa, in appealing for support for his new team, which faces a vote of confidence in parliament on Nov. 10, as stipulated by the constitution.
"We need a team of outstanding experts, not only those gathered here, to implement the program of mending of the state and of its individual elements," Marcinkiewicz said after his government was sworn in by President Aleksander Kwasniewski. "We must respond to the hopes of the Poles, that this government will implement the program."
The new ruling party has taken a strong, pro-American position, as did the previous government. Analysts say Poland is looking increasingly to its relationship with Washington as ties with Russia deteriorate.
Marcinkiewicz's party ally, President-elect Lech Kaczynski, has said his first foreign visit will be to Washington, though no date has been announced. New Defense Minister Radek Sikorski is regarded as valuing strong ties with the United States, although he has been critical of Washington for not repaying Poland for its support in Iraq.
Marcinkiewicz said after being sworn in that the decision to pull out of Iraq early next year stands for the moment.
"The decision on Iraq was made by the previous government," Marcinkiewicz said at a news conference. "Our troops are to stay until February 2006. For the time being, nothing has changed."
Kaczynski, who will become commander in chief of Poland's armed forces when sworn in on Dec. 23, has said he intends to discuss Poland's deployment in Iraq with President Bush when they meet, but has not said clearly whether he would extend the deployment.
"Everything is possible, including the prolonging of the Polish stabilization mission in Iraq," Kaczynski was quoted as saying by Polish Newsweek in an edition published Monday.
Sikorski has said the U.S. has not provided enough help modernizing the Polish military. "Poland can't afford to subsidize the U.S. any more ... we were hoping that the U.S. would help us organize our army and shoulder this burden, but it has not materialized," Sikorski said in a 2004 interview with "Foreign Exchange," a show produced for U.S. public television.
"I find it odd that the United States doesn't want to show that it pays to be America's friend in need," he added. "If that's how you treat your friends, you will have fewer of them in the future."
Sikorski has until recently been a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute research institute in Washington.
Law and Justice has 155 seats in the 460-seat parliament, but can win election with informal support from three smaller parties: the anti-European Union populist Self-Defense, the rural Polish Peasants' Party and the conservative Roman Catholic Polish Families' League.
The leader of Law and Justice is Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Lech Kaczynski's identical twin brother. Jaroslaw Kaczynski could have become prime minister but did not put himself forward for fear Poles would not want twins as president and prime minister.