Polish Leader Abandons Bid for Coalition

WARSAW--Polish Prime Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak said yesterday he is ready to resign and abandon his bid to form a new government so that the head of the smaller United Peasant Party, Roman Malinowski, can form a coalition government.

"A situation has emerged in which I see a chance for Roman Malinowski to form a new government in which there would be representatives of all forces in the parliament," Kiszczak said in a statement carried by the PAP news agency. "At the same time it would be a clear sign indicating the priority given to agriculture and the food economy in Poland's policy."

A Solidarity senator said the move appears designed to block Lech Walesa's attempt to form a government that excludes the Communist Party.

Walesa has been trying for a week to persuade the Peasant Party, led by Malinowski and aligned with the Communists in parliament, to join in a non-Communist coalition. Walesa has said he cannot support any government formed by Kiszczak.

A Solidarity-led coalition has alarmed the Soviet Union and would be the first non-communist government in the East bloc since the late 1940s.

Solidarity Sen. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Walesa's envoy to coalition talks, said the independent trade union movement would not abandon its efforts to form a government. Kaczynski said Kiszczak was trying to "make it...very difficult, if not impossible" for Solidarity to form the government, but that he did not think that the proposal of Malinowski for prime minister would succeed.

Solidarity lawmaker Henryk Wujec, the first opposition lawmaker to respond to the proposal of Malinowski to lead a government, called it "an idiotic move" and in all likelihood unacceptable to Walesa.

Kiszczak was elected prime minister August 2, winning a majority in Parliament despite opposition from the Solidarity caucus, which holds 35 percent the seats in the lower house.

Walesa announced August 7 he wanted to form a coalition government and his representatives began talks Thursday with Malinowski's United Peasant Party and the Democrats, the minor parties that hold the balance of power.

The Communist Party responded with alarm when Walesa proposed forming the government. On Friday, the Soviet Union joined in with expressions of concern, warning against possible harm to the stability of Poland and Europe.

The United Peasant Party, which claims a membership of 500,000, has been allied with the Communists since its creation in 1949 after the forced merger of a pro-Communist Peasant Party and an opposition Peasant Party. It has been allowed to develop a more independent policy in the last decade, and about one-third of its 76 deputies support Solidarity.

Malinowski, 54, trained as an economist, has been leader of the Peasant Party since 1981 and in the previous term of the parliament served as speaker of the Sejm.

By offering a non-Communist such as Malinowski to head the government--which in itself would be a first in postwar Poland--the Communist Party apparently hopes avoid the once-unthinkable prospect of a Solidarity government from coming true.

Kiszczak said he had been trying to assemble a cabinet, but Walesa's proposal "complicates and prolongs the process." He also said the Walesa proposal indicated the Solidarity leader's negative attitude toward any form of coalition government had eased, creating "new chances" for the "grand coalition" which he and the Communist Party have long advocated. For this reason, he said, he viewed Malinowski as having a chance for forming such a coalition government.

Mikolaj Kozakiewicz, speaker of the Sejm, said he did not know what the effect of Kiszczak's statement would be, but it was "a proposal...looking for another solution." He added that President Wojciech Jaruzelski must still accept Kiszczak's resignation and the parliament would still have to vote for Malinowski.

However, Aleksander Bentkowski, the Peasant Party parliamentary caucus leader, said he was not sure that Malinowski would accept the nomination because of the slim chances of successfully forming a coalition with Solidarity.

Bentkowski said Solidarity has said repeatedlyit wants to lead the next coalition and probablywould not agree to support Malinowski.

"Gen. Kiszczak in this way is presenting hisresignation.... In an elegant manner he is makingthe president realize that somebody else has to doit," Bentkowski said. "In my opinion, theproposition of Lech Walesa [for a Solidarity-ledgovernment] would be the best thing to do."

Solidarity's parliament leader, BronislawGeremek, had no comment. Walesa was unavailablefor comment, his mother-in-law said