home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- WORLD, Page 41World NotesPOLANDHard Times at The Top
-
-
-
- For months trade union leader Lech Walesa has been accusing
- Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki of too much haste in economic
- reform and too little urgency in ridding the government of
- onetime Communists. With his eye on the presidency, currently
- held by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Walesa has also been
- urging that elections scheduled for next spring be held
- earlier.
-
- Mazowiecki, whose refusal to accommodate the testy Nobel
- laureate caused a deep rift within Solidarity, last week went
- most of the way toward meeting Walesa's demands. In a major
- Cabinet reshuffle he dismissed three prominent former
- Communists and two other non-Solidarity ministers. The major
- casualties were Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak, who
- interned thousands of Solidarity activists during the
- martial-law crackdown in 1981, and Florian Siwicki, Defense
- Minister since 1983.
-
- Mazowiecki may be hoping that, by removing the issues, he
- can demonstrate that the trade unionist's presidential bid is
- firmly rooted in personal ambition. He might be hoping as well
- that, in return for a crack at the country's top job, Walesa
- will allow the government to get on with governing.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-