TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/111990/1119002.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 85 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 52

POLAND

Electrician vs. Intellectual


As the sweet-talking Walesa challenges a diffident Mazowiecki
for the presidency, the rifts within Solidarity grow deeper


    As a study in contrasts, the two front runners in Poland's
first-ever popular presidential election campaign could hardly
be more sharply drawn. The gaunt, intellectual Tadeusz
Mazowiecki moves slowly and speaks diffidently on weekends-only
campaign swings that are wedged into his prime-ministerial
schedule. The paunchy trade unionist Lech Walesa, on the other
hand, blitzes the country with almost daily campaign meetings,
haranguing opponents and sweet-talking supporters at every stop.

    With only days to go before the vote on Nov. 25, Walesa's
aggressive campaigning appears to be paying off. One opinion
poll showed last week that the Nobel laureate, who trailed
Mazowiecki by 5 points in mid-October, had moved ahead to take a
7-point lead. Poland's only bookmaker gave Walesa the edge, with
odds of 11 to 10, in contrast to 4 to 1 for the Prime Minister.

    But combined support for the other four presidential
campaigners had also risen -- from 5% to 14% in less than a
month -- and polls showed that nearly one-third of the
electorate was undecided. "It is very difficult to predict the
outcome," says Professor Adam Bromke of the Polish Academy of
Sciences. "All that seems certain is that no candidate will get
the 50% required for a first-round victory."

    That will mean a second round of voting in December and a
deepening of the rifts within Solidarity, the loose alliance of
workers and intellectuals that last year brought four decades
of Communist rule to an end. Parliamentary elections slated for
early next year may formalize the movement's breakup, which
began earlier this year when Walesa made clear his intention to
oust General Wojciech Jaruzelski from the presidency.

    That declaration pitted Walesa, 47, against Mazowiecki, 63, a
former colleague, who urged gradual political and economic
change and wanted to postpone the presidential campaign until
1991. Walesa accused the Mazowiecki government of dragging its
feet on reform and of being too soft on former Communists, many
of whom still occupy important positions. What will Walesa do if
elected? "There will be a lot of improvisation," he says
vaguely. "I'll travel around and check things."

    Mazowiecki is cautioning his countrymen that economic
experiments could bring disaster and warns that an
anti-Communist witch-hunt could lead to civil war. His
supporters portray Walesa as a potential dictator; Solidarity
ideologue Adam Michnik, for instance, recently described him as
"malicious, antagonistic and dangerous" and likely to create the
first "Peronist-style" government in Eastern Europe. The Prime
Minister's standing received a boost last week when German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl unexpectedly agreed to a treaty
confirming Poland's western border with Germany.

    Walesa is trying to win the support of intellectuals, who
bristle at his populist style, by meeting with them and urging
them to give "a newcomer" a chance. He has even suggested that
if elected he will ask Leszek Balcerowicz, the Finance Minister
and architect of the austerity measures that are at the center
of Poland's economic-reform plan, to be the next Prime Minister.
Some Poles view that as a welcome promise of continuity in
economic policy; others see it as proof that Walesa's campaign
is inspired more by personal ambition than the desire to make
significant changes in the Mazowiecki government's policies.


By John Borrell/Vienna.