Opposition concern at new Polish finance appointment

Poland: Poland's liberals have claimed that the government's appointment of one of its former top members as finance minister is a doomed attempt to split the opposition.

The Civic Platform's Zyta Gilowska replaced the embattled Teresa Lubinska in the minority conservative government just days before a crucial vote on the 2006 budget.While the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) said she would boost efforts to reform a creaking economy, the Civic Platform (PO) called her appointment a cynical ploy to undermine its ranks and one that could backfire spectacularly in the weeks ahead.

"The government will be much stronger after today," insisted prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz after naming his new minister. "Poland demands further-reaching reforms and a faster economic growth rate."

Ms Gilowska - the former economic policy chief of the Civic Platform, which came a close second in autumn elections - identified her priority as combating Poland's 17.6 per cent unemployment, the highest in the EU.

"This is our social drama," she said. "It's on such a large scale that tens, even hundreds of thousands of young Poles, often highly educated, can't find work."

However, Civic Platform leader Jan Rokita warned the government that instead of dividing the opposition, Ms Gilowska's appointment would put unbearable strain on the alliance between the PiS and populist parties which loathe the liberal reforms she advocates.

"Without doubt, the main political goal of the move was to cause trouble for the Civic Platform," Mr Rokita claimed, "but this is a move based on nervous, short-term thinking. I know Zyta Gilowska very well and I can say that this will quickly cause a government crisis."

Financial markets quailed after the PiS failed to form a governing coalition with the Civic Platform, a party seen as committed to liberal reforms.

Concern among economists grew when the PiS turned for parliamentary support to the left-wing Self-Defence party and the nationalist League of Polish Families, both of which threatened to abandon the government if it pushed through market-driven reforms that could hurt the poor.

Mr Rokita said his old colleague would aim to make just those kinds of changes. "This government, with Zyta Gilowska, will lower taxes, curb the budget deficit and do the things that Poles are really waiting for," he declared.

Analysts said Ms Gilowska's presence would reassure the markets of the government's reformist credentials. However, Roman Giertych, the head of the League of Polish Families, called her appointment a "fatal error", while Self-Defence leader Andrzej Lepper said it "exposed the liberal mask" of a government that "was not and still is not prepared to govern".

If the budget is rejected, general elections not due until 2009 could take place as soon as April.

Poland an important actor on EU stage: page 12