Wojciech Olejniczak
Veto Killer
New Polish Government Must Rely On Poland's Post Communists
Warsaw, Poland 12 November, 2007 Polish President Lech Kaczynski is prepared to make life difficult for Poland's Prime Minister Designate Donald Tusk. Kaczynski promised, even prior the formation of the new Government, that he will wield his veto pen to prevent the passage of some reforms that Tusk proposed during the election campaign. It puts Poland's new Government Coalition is in a difficult situation. It does not have enough votes to override the Polish President's threatened veto of future key legislation. So in order to make meaningful reforms the Coalition will be dependent on a non coalition party that has historical ties to the communists.
Tusk's situation is clear. Either he proposes legislation that Kaczynski likes or it gets vetoed. If he wants to have the veto overridden he has to work with the post communist party SLD that has 51 seats in the Polish Parliament. That 51 must be added to the Civic Platform's 209 and PSL's 31 to get the necessary number to override a veto.
The SLD has been evolving since its early days of total domination by powerful old communists. Young people with no history in communism are joining the party. The leadership is turning over. But there are not enough changes yet to sooth the emotional wounds of past inflicted on people like Donald Tusk who fought for freedom in the 1980's.
As a practical matter however, if Prime Minister designate Donald Tusk expects to get anything done that counters the ideas of either of the Kaczynski brothers, he is going to have to open a back channel to the SLD.
Deputy Prime Minister designate Pawlak may be the man who actually does the negotiating with SLD.
THe SLD's leader, Wojciech Olejniczak, cannot be expected to be content with being a veto override tool that is cared for only when needed. He is likely to expect the opportunity to make early input into any piece of legislation so that if it comes back to the Parliament, vetoed by the President, his party will be ready to support an override.
Olejniczak can be viewed, even now, as a silent, but necessary, unofficial coalition partner. He, the leader of the post communists, can make or break Donald Tusk's plans. He is Tusk's necessary veto killer.
