Coaltion of the willing? You gotta be kidding!

October 21, 2007

Opposition Heading to Victory in Poland

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:39 p.m. ET

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A pro-business opposition party that wants to bring

Poland's troops home from Iraq had a double-digit lead over the prime

minister's strongly pro-U.S. party in the country's parliamentary elections

Sunday, according to exit polls.

State TV projections showed the Civic Platform party and its preferred

coalition partner, the small Polish Peasants Party, winning a majority of

seats in the lower house, which would allow them to form a government

together and oust Jaroslaw Kaczynski as prime minister.

Civic Platform was projected to take at least 224 seats and the Peasants

Party 27 seats.

Kaczynski appeared headed for a stinging defeat in an election where Poles

passed judgment on his combative approach to the European Union and

controversial effort to purge former communists from positions of influence.

Appearing before supporters late Sunday, Kaczynski said ''we didn't manage

in the face of this unprecedented broad front of attacks,'' referring to the

opposition's campaign.

Donald Tusk, the leader of the pro-business Civic Platform party, said that

Poland needed to focus on the economic opportunities presented by membership

in the EU, which Poland joined in 2004.

''It is Civic Platform's intention to make Poles feel much better in their

own country than they have felt so far,'' Tusk told cheering supporters.

''We are going to do huge work and we will do it well. You have the right to

rejoice today.''

Tusk also wants strong ties with Washington. He has nonetheless questioned

whether Kaczynski's two-year-old government was driving a strong enough

bargain in negotiations to host 10 U.S. interceptor missiles aimed at

stopping potential attacks from Iran.

Kaczynski had sought the elections two years ahead of schedule after his

ruling Law and Justice party could not overcome bickering with the two

smaller parties it needed to form a majority.

Kaczynski has clashed with other EU countries over a new treaty to govern

how the union makes decisions, demanding more say for Poland. He is also at

odds with the EU over environmental protection, government support for

Polish firms, and the death penalty, which he supports although Poland does

not have it.

High turnout caused some polling stations to run out of ballots and stay

open longer than scheduled, delaying the release of the first exit polls for

nearly three hours.

The mood was upbeat at Tusk's election gathering, though the opposition

candidate called it ''the longest wait of my life.''

By late afternoon, more than 38 percent of Poland's 30 million eligible

voters had cast ballots, and some estimates had final turnout topping 50

percent.

An exit poll for TVP state television showed 43.7 percent of people voting

for Civic Platform and 30.4 percent choosing Kaczynski's Law and Justice

party.

A TVN24 private television exit poll showed a 44.2 percent to 31.3 percent

edge for Civic Platform, and also showed Civic Platform's preferred

coalition partner, the Polish Peasants Party, with 7.9 percent -- enough to

give the two parties a majority of the popular vote.

Kaczynski had gambled that the election would give him a stronger hand to

govern, but he risks losing power to Tusk's Civic Platform, which has seen

its support rise in the polls since an Oct. 12 televised debate that Tusk is

widely seen as having won.

''I voted for Law and Justice because this party is telling the truth and

doing something,'' said Andrzej Sulkowski, 51, an office clerk in Warsaw.

''In their two years of government they did what they could.''

Malgorzata Szulc, 21, said Kaczynski and his twin brother, President Lech

Kaczynski, were too confrontational.

''The Kaczynskis have made a lot of enemies in Europe. We need friends, not

enemies,'' she said at one of Warsaw's polling stations.

The country's deployment training Iraqi security forces has been extended

through the end of the year by the current government, but Kaczynski has

suggested it could be extended again.

Tusk's party, on the other hand, wants the troops to come home, although

some party officials have said that could take as long as until the end of

2008.

Tusk's party also calls for additional security guarantees for Poland such

as the U.S. Patriot short-range anti-missile and anti-aircraft system, and

suggests Kaczynski has failed to win rewards such as visa-free travel for

Poles to the United States.

Civic Platform supports measures to improve Poles' economic prospects at

home and lure back some of the hundreds of thousands who have moved to

Britain and Ireland since the country joined the European Union in 2004.

Law and Justice is socially conservative, stressing patriotism and a purge

of former communists from public life while supporting more social welfare

for families.

Both Kaczynski and Tusk began their political careers as anti-communist

dissidents in the Solidarity movement, which paved the way for the fall of

communism in 1989. Today, however, they part ways on how to deal with the

ex-communists who were once their enemies.

Kaczynski favors a belated purge of ex-communists and their secret

collaborators from public life -- a reckoning purposely avoided in the

peaceful transition of power.

He maintains that the ex-communists continue to wield undue influence. But a

court overturned his legislation to have up to 700,000 people, including

journalists and teachers, screened for collaboration.

Tusk's party opposes that kind of reckoning, saying that Poland should not

divert its attention from the new economic opportunities presented since the

country joined the EU in 2004.

On the economy, the prime minister favors generous state spending to protect

the poor and needy and introduced cash bonuses for new mothers and tax

breaks for families with children.

Tusk favors lower taxes, less bureaucracy and other market-oriented policies

that he says will create an ''economic miracle.'' The country already enjoys

strong growth, but still is plagued by high unemployment and low wages that

have seen many Poles move to Britain and Ireland for work.