Sejm

Solidarity and a team of negotiators for the Polish government have decided to hold new elections to fill 33 vacant seats in Parliament created when all but two names on a special list of unopposed Communist candidates were rejected by voters in last Sunday's elections. And Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, in his first news conference since the election, said Friday that some members of the Solidarity "team" might join the Communist-dominated government. But he insisted that Solidarity will continue to resist the government's call to join in a coalition government.

The lower house of Poland's National Assembly on Thursday condemned the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, echoing a move by Hungary and further straining relations between reformist and conservative East European states. "The intervention breached the inalienable right of every nation to self-determination and its natural desire for democracy, freedom and respect for human rights," the lower house, known as the Sejm, said in a resolution passed 335-1, with nine abstentions.

Parliament today overwhelmingly passed a law giving the Roman Catholic Church legal status in Poland for the first time since the communist takeover in 1944. The law made Poland the first East Bloc country to reach a formal reconciliation with the Catholic Church and closed an era of confrontation in which the church became a powerful center of resistance to communist rule. Church officials said they expect an agreement by early fall making Poland the first country in the bloc to establish full diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Solidarity won eight of the remaining nine seats available to opposition candidates in the second round of the Polish parliamentary elections, according to unofficial returns announced Monday. The final tally gives Solidarity 99 seats out of 100 in the Senate and 161 seats in the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament. The remaining 299 Sejm seats will go to the Communist Party and its allies, the result of a pre-election agreement between Solidarity and the Polish authorities. The Communists were saved from a total shutout in the newly created Senate by the victory in Sunday's runoff vote of a wealthy feed and fertilizer manufacturer from Pila.

Solidarity won eight of the remaining nine seats available to opposition candidates in the second round of the Polish parliamentary elections, according to unofficial returns announced Monday. The final tally gives Solidarity 99 seats out of 100 in the Senate and 161 seats in the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament. The remaining 299 Sejm seats will go to the Communist Party and its allies, the result of a pre-election agreement between Solidarity and the Polish authorities. The Communists were saved from a total shutout in the newly created Senate by the victory in Sunday's runoff vote of a wealthy feed and fertilizer manufacturer from Pila.

The Communist Party conceded defeat today in the country's first free parliamentary elections in four decades, saying Solidarity won a landslide and top party reformers were voted out of office. "Solidarity got an overwhelming majority," Communist Party spokesman Jan Bisztyga said in a statement on the nationally televised evening news program. "The result must be that the opposition must take co-responsibility for the state." The official news agency PAP said Solidarity candidates won up to 80% of the vote against government candidates.

The lower house of Poland's National Assembly on Thursday condemned the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, echoing a move by Hungary and further straining relations between reformist and conservative East European states. "The intervention breached the inalienable right of every nation to self-determination and its natural desire for democracy, freedom and respect for human rights," the lower house, known as the Sejm, said in a resolution passed 335-1, with nine abstentions.

Four members of Parliament and a parliamentary employee were killed in a road accident, a spokesman for the Sejm, or lower house, said. The spokesman said the five died when their minibus, which the employee was driving, collided with a truck Friday night on the way from Krakow to Zakopane. All four lawmakers were members of the Sejm committee on social policy. A sixth passenger, a committee secretary, was in serious condition.

President Lech Walesa vetoed a law drafted for Poland's first fully democratic parliamentary election. He exercised the presidential right of veto despite a warning from Mikolaj Kozakiewicz, Speaker of the Sejm (lower house), that such a move would make it impossible for the election to be held in October as planned.

Solidarity legislators, avoiding an immediate confrontation with the Communist-led majority, decided not to put up a candidate for speaker of the Sejm, Poland's lower house of Parliament, when it convenes Tuesday. The deputies, meeting over the weekend to discuss rules of the Sejm and the new Senate, nominated Andrzej Stelmachowski as speaker of the upper chamber.

Solidarity and a team of negotiators for the Polish government have decided to hold new elections to fill 33 vacant seats in Parliament created when all but two names on a special list of unopposed Communist candidates were rejected by voters in last Sunday's elections. And Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, in his first news conference since the election, said Friday that some members of the Solidarity "team" might join the Communist-dominated government. But he insisted that Solidarity will continue to resist the government's call to join in a coalition government.

The Communist Party conceded defeat today in the country's first free parliamentary elections in four decades, saying Solidarity won a landslide and top party reformers were voted out of office. "Solidarity got an overwhelming majority," Communist Party spokesman Jan Bisztyga said in a statement on the nationally televised evening news program. "The result must be that the opposition must take co-responsibility for the state." The official news agency PAP said Solidarity candidates won up to 80% of the vote against government candidates.

Parliament today overwhelmingly passed a law giving the Roman Catholic Church legal status in Poland for the first time since the communist takeover in 1944. The law made Poland the first East Bloc country to reach a formal reconciliation with the Catholic Church and closed an era of confrontation in which the church became a powerful center of resistance to communist rule. Church officials said they expect an agreement by early fall making Poland the first country in the bloc to establish full diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Poland's Solidarity government unveiled plans Monday to bypass Parliament temporarily on most economic issues and issue decrees with the force of law. The government sent a bill to the Sejm, or lower house, seeking special powers to issue decrees and break a legislative logjam holding up many free market reform measures. A communique said it will also ask the Sejm to pass constitutional changes permanently strengthening the executive at a special sitting this week.