POLAND: Coalition talks opened in Warsaw yesterday hours after the leader of the winning party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), apparently relinquished his ambitions to become prime minister.
He nominated headmaster turned economic adviser Kamzimerz Marcinkiewicz (46) to head initial talks with President Aleksander Kwasniewski, setting tongues wagging in Warsaw.
Mr Kaczynski said the move was a compromise gesture to his party's coalition partner, the Civic Platform (PO), and the "shortest way to quickly form a new government".
But he has changed his mind twice in recent weeks on the prime minister question, and some political observers suggested that Mr Marcinkiewicz may just be a holding candidate to boost the chances of Mr Kaczynski's identical twin brother, Lech, in the October 9th presidential election.
The brothers have said they would be unwilling to serve as president and prime minister simultaneously, a view reflected in Polish opinion polls. But voters might be more willing to back Lech Kaczynski, currently the mayor of Warsaw, if they believed his brother was out of the picture.
"Everyone's trying to figure this out but no one knows. It's a mess here," said Piotr Kaczynski, of Warsaw's Institute of Public Affairs (ISP), and no relation of the two brothers. "It may be a game to gain more time."
Officially, the prime minister is nominated by the president, but the decision is only binding after the first parliamentary sitting, when the last government is dismissed and the new government is voted in, something that may not happen for three weeks.
The nomination of Mr Marcinkiewicz was described as an "unpleasant surprise" by Donald Tusk, the PO leader and its presidential candidate.
He is still ahead of Lech Kaczynski in the polls, but suggested that Jaroslaw Kaczynski may be planning to govern from the background. Mr Marcinkiewicz has denied suggestions that he is a stop-gap measure.
He has been a deputy since 1997, is a close ally of the Kaczynski brothers and a former deputy minister for education. In the last administration he headed the treasury commission. Mr Marcinkiewicz warned yesterday there were tough coalition negotiations ahead.
