Poland

Abstract

This was the first year since 1987 without a change of government in Poland. It was by no means a boring year, however. The major challenges to the young Polish democracy came from the tensions between the President, on the one hand, and the parliament and cabinet, on the other. Lech Walqsa, former leader of Solidarity, elected President in 1990, has been a symbol of the resistance mounted by the Polish people against a communist regime, and has also been a strong proponent of the further departure from the old communist patterns in the economy and politics. In the parliament elected in 1993, the post-communist coalition of the SLD and PSL won almost twothirds of the seats, which gave the Pawlak II cabinet the comfort of ruling without any effective opposition within the parliament.