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Poland The Pawlak Interlude
In June Walesa nominated Waldemar Pawlak, the
thirty-two-
year-old leader of the Polish Peasant Party, as
Olszewski's
replacement. The Sejm approved the nomination by a vote of
261 to
149. To calm the highly charged atmosphere in Warsaw and
the
persistent rumors of coup plots, the new prime minister
immediately replaced ministers implicated in circulation
of the
controversial list. Despite Pawlak's reputation as a
reasonable
and competent politician, he could not surmount his
membership in
a party tainted by past accommodation to the communists;
he was
unable to assemble a cabinet acceptable to the splintered
Sejm.
The first prime minister without Solidarity connections
since the
Round Table Agreement, Pawlak failed to win the support of
any
major party linked to Solidarity. When talks with the
major
opposition parties broke down a month after his
appointment,
Pawlak asked Walesa to relieve him of the mission of
forming a
new government.
Data as of October 1992
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