Poland may get coalition rule

SLD leader and ex-communit Miller favours a coalition government

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's former communists favour a coalition government rather than a minority cabinet after their party fell just short of a majority in the recent general election, the ex-communist leader said.

"I believe that a coalition government would be better. You avoid chasing down every single deputy to beg him or her to vote," said Leszek Miller, whose Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is 15 seats shorts of the 231-seat majority in parliament.

The SLD ousted the ruling right-wing Solidarity bloc from parliament in last Sunday's election on a wave of voter anger at mounting unemployment, now at 16 percent, corruption scandals and mishandled reforms.

Miller told the business daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita on Saturday that if coalition talks go smoothly, an SLD-led cabinet could be formed soon after the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, due on October 19.

RESOURCES Profile: Polish Democratic Left Alliance leader Leszek Miller

He reiterated that a new government urgently needed to launch an austerity programme to prevent the ballooning budget deficit from sparking a financial crisis that would harm Poland's efforts to join the European Union in 2004.

Miller, an ex-communist apparatchik restyled as a pro-EU social democrat, declined to name a partner for a coalition government, but some SLD politicians said an alliance is expected with the oft-populist-leaning Peasant Party (PSL).

One senior SLD source, who asked not to be named, said Miller would strike a coalition deal with the PSL unless it demands too many government posts or seeks to water down reforms needed to revive stalled EU accession talks.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who once led the SLD and remains influential in the party, would prefer a minority government that would be supported by the pro-business Civic Platform on key issues, such as EU entry, the politician told Reuters.

"Kwasniewski favours a minority government as it would be more liberal. Miller considers a coalition superior, because it needn't worry about support in parliament, and he will probably prevail, unless the Peasants make unrealistic demands."

The SLD ruled in an uneasy coalition with the PSL in 1993-1997, pushing ahead with free market reforms but delaying privatisations and some industrial reforms.

Miller reiterated that presidential adviser Marek Belka, seen by investors as the guarantor of sound economic policies, would remain the SLD's candidate for finance minister, despite his controversial statements just before the elections.

"He is an expert respected by the world of international finances," he said, adding that Belka's plans for painful spending cuts unveiled just three days before the election could have cost the SLD its majority in parliament.