Alkeksander Kwasniewski (left) with Janusz Palikot, Friday; below, Janusz Palikot: photos - PAP/Jacek Turczyk
“The objective of Europa Plus is the construction of a center-left formation and a coalition which fights to win,” Kwasniewski, who was president of Poland from 1995 to 2005, said, after a meeting of 16 provincial leaders of the new group.
Present at the meeting was Janusz Palikot, who leads the new, liberal Palikot Movement, which came from nowhere to become the third largest party in parliament in elections in 2011.
Absent was Leszek Miller, leader of the former communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) who has said he wants nothing to do with Janusz Palikot, who he regards not as a left wing politician but a liberal populist.
Aleksander Kwasniewski said, however, that he will go on working to bring together SLD - “wth which I have emotional and historical ties” - and all left wing parties under the Europa Plus banner.
“We will look for what unites, rather than divides. The idea that has guided me from the beginning is to build the broadest possible movement of the center-left,” Kwasniewski said.
'Goofy smile'
On Friday, Leszek Miller showed that he was a long way from getting together with the liberal Janusz Palikot.
Miller said he was disgusted when Palikot appeared with a glass of champaign to 'celebrate' this week the third anniversary of the Smolensk air disaster in April 2010 – which killed President Lech Kaczynski and many opposition politicians from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and SLD.
“On April 10, my colleagues and I went to the graves of our friends, to honour their memory. At the same time we see a photograph of Janusz Palikot with a goofy smile and a glass of champagne in his hand. For this reason, we do not want to have anything to do with Janusz Palikot,” Miller said.
SLD and the Palikot Movement have become bitter rivals for the left-liberal vote but Aleksander Kwasniewski said he would continue to work behind the scenes to create a united left to fight European parliamentary elections in 2014 and possibly in the general election in 2015.
Poland has been ruled by conservative right and centre-right parties since 2005, when SLD won just 11 percent of the vote following four years in government riddled by corruption and crony-ism scandals.
Though he is left trying to unite the left wing in Poland, without much success to date, a poll released on Friday by the TNS group found that 51 percent of respondents thought Aleksander Kwasniewski would make a good leader of the new Europa Plus group.
“Of course, the result makes me happy,” Kwasniewski told TVP television. “I will do everything possible to unite the Polish left. If 51 percent of people think that I can fulfil this role, I will be happy to do so”.
He refused to say, however, if he would stand for a seat in the European parliamentary elections next year. (pg)
source: PAP/IAR/TVN24/TVP