Poland's Solidarity bloc clinched a draft coalition deal with the smaller Freedom Union (UW) yesterday and the President named Solidarity's Prof Jerzy Buzek (57) as Prime Minister of a new centre-right cabinet.
"I have signed the decision on designating Prof Jerzy Buzek for Prime Minister. I am convinced he is the right person because of his competence and ability to form a cabinet," President Aleksander Kwasniewski declared.
The appointment followed an agreement struck between the leaders of the two parties minutes before Mr Buzek's scheduled meeting with Mr Kwasniewski.
"We will now get down to forming a government. I hope the time for forming the government will be shorter than the 14 days set out in the constitution," Mr Buzek said.
Mr Kwasniewski said he shared with Mr Buzek views on key goals of the future government.
"We agree that the key to Poland's success is maintaining a high pace of economic growth and preparations for membership and later the actual entry into the European Union," he said.
The coalition of the union-led Solidarity Election Action (AWS) and the Freedom Union replaces the cabinet of Mr Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, who quit earlier yesterday after his ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and its Peasant party partners lost the elections held on September 21st.
The coalition will have a clear majority as Solidarity won 201 of parliament's 460 lower house seats and the Freedom Union took 60.
A Solidarity spokesman, Mr Tomasz Tywonek, told reporters the draft coalition deal would first be submitted to the wider leadership of the two parties and then be made public.
He gave no details of which party would get key cabinet posts. Coalition talks had been deadlocked over the issue, but a meeting between the Solidarity leader, Mr Marian Krzaklewski, and the UW leader, Mr Leszek Balcerowicz, finally broke the impasse.
Mr Krzaklewski said the coalition document would be edited tomorrow and revealed to parliamentarians on Monday.
Both the AWS and the UW stem originate in the democracy struggle that brought down communism in 1989 and they have many common goals including faster privatisation, greater powers for local government and reform of the pensions system.
The Freedom Union is more secular and insistent on economic caution, while the AWS puts stress on social issues and has Catholic traditions.
The Freedom Union had wanted Mr Balcerowicz to be sole Deputy Prime Minister with special responsibility for the economy, while the AWS started the talks by proposing three deputy prime ministers.
Sources close to the talks said the two parties would probably compromise on two.
While Mr Buzek works on submitting a cabinet list within 14 days, the outgoing ministers are to act as caretakers. Once the new cabinet is in place it has a further 14 days to pass a confidence vote in parliament.
The coalition talks dragged on partly because the outgoing government's resignation was delayed until a new Polish constitution took effect at midnight on October 16th, so parliament can meet on Monday under the new rules.
The constitution, passed by referendum in May to replace an obsolete communist-era document and some interim arrangements, weakens the presidency and strengthens the prime minister.
The president will no longer be able to veto budget Bills and his veto on other matters can be overturned by three-fifths of votes in parliament rather than two-thirds.