Word: jaruzelski
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...share power? Solidarity leader Lech Walesa could see no good reason last week as he turned down an invitation from President Wojciech Jaruzelski to join a grand coalition government with the Communist Party. After a two-hour closed meeting with Jaruzelski at the President's residence in Warsaw's Belvedere Palace, Walesa declared, "I must say I don't envy the President. He has an awful lot of problems...
Rather than joining the Communists, Walesa said, he told Jaruzelski that Solidarity should be permitted to form its own government. The trade-union movement earned that right, the union leader declared, with its dramatic June 4 election victory, in which its candidates captured all 161 seats that were open to it in the 460-seat Sejm, or lower house, and 99 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Said he: "The only sensible decision would be to give power to those forces that have the support of the majority of the electorate...
...Jaruzelski offered Walesa seven of 21 Cabinet posts, including Deputy Prime Minister and the ministries of health, industry, environment and housing. Again Walesa refused, on the grounds that only a Solidarity government would have enough support to carry out the tough austerity measures needed to ease Poland's economic crisis. A junior role in a coalition government would implicate Solidarity in that crisis without giving it the means to bring about significant change. "By remaining in opposition," said Walesa, "we can make sure that the government doesn't leave the road to reform...
...Jaruzelski did not reject outright the idea of a Solidarity government, but, according to Walesa, preferred to press ahead with a plan to form a Communist- led coalition. Jaruzelski "must take on all the responsibility for the formation of a new government," said Walesa. "For my part, I intend to form a shadow cabinet to prepare for the measures that sooner or later will become inevitable." In fact, Walesa created a 15-member shadow cabinet last December; its role then was to formulate the trade union's position in preparation for so-called round-table talks that...
...nation's first elected President since 1952, Jaruzelski called on the contingent of opposition Solidarity Deputies to share responsibility by joining the Communist Party in a coalition government. But first he must get his own allies in line. Without a rival candidate, Jaruzelski required only a simple majority to be elected, a sure thing if all 299 Deputies belonging to the Communist coalition threw their weight behind him. The final count showed that eleven Communist alliance Deputies had broken ranks and that the general owed his election to maneuvering by a handful of Solidarity deputies...