Poland Budget

After a lengthy flirtation with the temptations of populist economics, the Polish government has come back down to earth with a budget that meets the stringent demands of its international creditors. The revised budget proposal, announced earlier this week but still not formally adopted by Parliament, holds to an austerity line in several key areas, most notably a pledge to keep a burgeoning government spending deficit within 5% of gross national product.

Workers at one of Poland's two auto plants are striking for a 150% pay raise. The government budget deficit has spiraled to double the relative size of the massive U.S. deficit. Members of as many as 20 parties are clawing for power in Parliament. Yet for all that, things have rarely looked so bright here since Poland led Eastern Europe's revolt against communism in 1989.

For the two months it has been in office, Prime Minister Jan Olszewski's government has operated without an economic policy, although it has been under mounting pressure from its international creditors to devise a credible budget before continuing negotiations on debt relief.

A 33-year-old farmer became Poland's prime minister Friday and promised a Cabinet committed to resuming the country's stalled political and economic reforms. Waldemar Pawlak, leader of the Polish Peasants Party, was voted in by Parliament, 261 to 149, just hours after President Lech Walesa submitted Pawlak's nomination. Parliament late Friday had fired Prime Minister Jan Olszewski.

Poland's prime minister made a surprise offer to resign Friday after the former Communists and their allies who control the Parliament sharply criticized his austerity policies. Lawmakers in the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament, voted 209 to 65 to delay until today a decision on dissolving the 8-month-old government of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki. Bielecki said he would not stay on in a caretaker capacity if the resignation were accepted.

Poland will cut tens of thousands of people from its military and reduce the percentage of national income spent on defense because of decreasing East-West tensions, Defense Minister Florian Siwicki was quoted as saying Tuesday.

A 33-year-old farmer became Poland's prime minister Friday and promised a Cabinet committed to resuming the country's stalled political and economic reforms. Waldemar Pawlak, leader of the Polish Peasants Party, was voted in by Parliament, 261 to 149, just hours after President Lech Walesa submitted Pawlak's nomination. Parliament late Friday had fired Prime Minister Jan Olszewski.

Workers at one of Poland's two auto plants are striking for a 150% pay raise. The government budget deficit has spiraled to double the relative size of the massive U.S. deficit. Members of as many as 20 parties are clawing for power in Parliament. Yet for all that, things have rarely looked so bright here since Poland led Eastern Europe's revolt against communism in 1989.

TheOnion.com, the satirical online weekly that often captures through grandiose exaggeration of life's mundanities the precise ridiculousness of passing news moments, once ran an observant headline: "Just Six Corporations Remain." To those who don't follow every move in these corporate gobblings, that assertion has seemed too true in recent weeks. Company couplings are down slightly this year (about 8,040 in 2001 versus 10,800 in 2000), but the perceived scale is larger.

When the Pentagon proudly announced last week that more and more countries have been signing up to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, one fact drew little attention: U.S. taxpayers will be paying a fair chunk of the bill. As it has sought to spread the peacekeeping burden, the Bush administration has agreed to help underwrite the participation of such countries as Poland, Ukraine, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

After a lengthy flirtation with the temptations of populist economics, the Polish government has come back down to earth with a budget that meets the stringent demands of its international creditors. The revised budget proposal, announced earlier this week but still not formally adopted by Parliament, holds to an austerity line in several key areas, most notably a pledge to keep a burgeoning government spending deficit within 5% of gross national product.

For the two months it has been in office, Prime Minister Jan Olszewski's government has operated without an economic policy, although it has been under mounting pressure from its international creditors to devise a credible budget before continuing negotiations on debt relief.

Poland's prime minister made a surprise offer to resign Friday after the former Communists and their allies who control the Parliament sharply criticized his austerity policies. Lawmakers in the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament, voted 209 to 65 to delay until today a decision on dissolving the 8-month-old government of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki. Bielecki said he would not stay on in a caretaker capacity if the resignation were accepted.

Poland will cut tens of thousands of people from its military and reduce the percentage of national income spent on defense because of decreasing East-West tensions, Defense Minister Florian Siwicki was quoted as saying Tuesday.

This charming little town in the Tatra Mountains, which Poland shares with Slovakia, is a favorite winter-summer playground for Poles. Yet few Polish women would choose to live here full-time if they had to observe one of the area's quaint and centuries-old traditions every year. At Easter, many of Zakopane's housewives and their daughters dutifully get out the buckets, brushes and ladders in preparation for washing their houses, while the men work the fields.