
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110418
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WARSAW, POLAND                                LENGTH: Medium

WALESA MAKES BID TO LEAD POLAND

Lech Walesa, obviously chafing under the burdens of his curiously offstage role in Polish politics, publicly acknowledged Tuesday what his advisers have known for months - he is ready to make his bid for the presidency of Poland.

The word came from one of his top operatives in Warsaw, who told the local newspaper that Walesa was prepared to challenge Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the incumbent, by pressuring him to resign or backing constitutional changes that would bring new national elections.

"I confirm [it]," said Walesa, responding to queries from the official news agency PAP about the aide's newspaper interview.

"We have a lot of wise and valuable people in the government and other positions, but one has to speed up the pace of reforms and remove the old set-up."

The first public word that the Solidarity leader might be interested in winning the presidency soon came over the weekend from Sen. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, editor of the Solidarity weekly Tygodnik Solidarnosc.

He said that Walesa should take over the job to invigorate the Solidarity-led government and speed up Poland's transition to full democracy.

Then, Tuesday, before Walesa himself confirmed the talk, his chief of staff, Krzysztof Pusz, said that a quick change is needed because Jaruzelski is doing nothing to speed up reforms at home or win help for Poland from abroad.

"Everything is going too slowly. We just need someone with a whip," Pusz said.

"Jaruzelski is very inactive. Nobody receives him. So what can he do for Poland?" he asked. "We need someone who would be able to get something for Poland. Walesa would travel, arrange things, and at home he would get things moving."

Walesa was the first European dissident leader to push Communists from power in the Soviet Bloc. He led the wave of reform that swept Eastern Europe last year.

He led the wave of reform that swept Eastern Europe last year, paving the way for East Germans and Czechoslovaks to shed the Stalinist governments that had so long dominated them.

Jaruzelski was elected last July by Parliament when he was seen as providing both continuity for the transition from communism to democracy and insurance from interference by the Soviet Union.

by CNB