Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990 TAG: 9004110555
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WARSAW, POLAND LENGTH: Medium
Walesa said his "metaphor" about running for president, in comments to the official Polish news agency on Tuesday, was a warning to the government to work faster in transforming Poland from a communist to a democratic system.
Nevertheless, politicians in Poland expressed little doubt today that Walesa would run for president, with the only question being when the voting would take place.
President Wojciech Jaruzelski's term is not due to end until 1995, but there is a strong possibility that a general election for president will be moved up as part of an overhaul of the Polish Constitution.
The most likely time for elections appears to be spring of 1991, when Poland would be marking the 200th anniversary of its first written constitution.
Jaruzelski is a former head of the now-dissolved Communist Party that ruled Poland until popular forces led by Solidarity won control of the government last year.
He was elected by a Parliament seated after elections that were only partly free and under an arrangement that allowed his allies to hold on to the Defense and Interior ministries in the Solidarity-led government.
It had been widely expected that Walesa would seek to force Jaruzelski's early resignation.
There has been no comment from Jaruzelski or his aides about a Walesa presidential bid. Jaruzelski began a trip to the Soviet Union today.
Walesa, speaking with reporters today during a visit to his Gdansk union headquarters by Czechoslovak Deputy Premier Jan Carnogursky, predicted his remarks would lead to a political backlash.
"As a result of the announcement, I will surely not become president," Walesa said. He then stressed that his "signal" was aimed more at quickening the pace of reforms than putting himself into the president's office.
"The slogan in which I say that Lech Walesa is ready to run for president means that he wants to speed up reforms, so that the reforms are quicker and better, not that Lech Walesa wants to take the post of president," he said.
Walesa added that his remarks to a reporter from the Polish press agency had been misconstrued.
"Today on radio and TV, I hear that Lech Walesa agreed to be president. I didn't say so at all," he said. "I simply did not guard my tongue enough somewhere."
The verbal retreat from his declaration of candidacy was vintage Walesa, who typically is circumspect in discussing his political moves and often makes seemingly contradictory statements.
For instance, he hinted repeatedly in August that he would be Solidarity's candidate for prime minister, a factor that helped persuade two smaller parties long allied with the Communists to support a Solidarity-dominated government.
In the end, Walesa handed the union nod to adviser Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who became the East bloc's first non-Communist prime minister.
"The fact that Walesa intends to run for president of the Polish Republic is not a surprise for me," Labor Party leader Wladyslaw SilaNowicki said in today's editions of the newspaper Rzeczpospolita.
"The circles connected with Lech Walesa have long been disclosing such intentions of the Solidarity chairman," said Marek Jurek, a Solidarity parliament deputy.
At least one Solidarity deputy, Aleksander Malachowski, said Mazowiecki would be a better candidate for president.
The discussion of a presidential bid by Walesa comes just days before the Solidarity labor union is due to hold its first national congress in nine years.
by CNB