POLAND: Poland's outgoing president Aleksander Kwasniewski has urged the right-wing winners of Sunday's general election to conduct "constructive" coalition talks, warning that "what Poland needs above all else is stability".
His intervention came as likely future prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski vowed to restore public confidence in Polish politics after 60 per cent of voters stayed away from the polls.
No government is likely to emerge in Warsaw before the October 9th presidential election: Mr Kaczynski's twin brother Lech is contesting that race against Civic Platform (PO)leader Donald Tusk.
The former child-star twins turned enfants terribles of Polish politics say they want to avoid serving simultaneously as president and prime minister.
Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party (PiS) emerged with 27 per cent of the vote with almost all results in yesterday, ahead of his likely coalition partner, the pro-business PO, with 24 per cent.
PO lead candidate Jan Rokita said that despite the low turnout, the election was important because "it marks the end of the post-communist era".
The post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) was swept from office on Sunday night, after a four-year term tainted by sleaze and continued high unemployment.
That was the key to the PiS success, says Poland's leading newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, suggesting the PiS won the election by being a "formally right-wing party but actually left".
The PiS ran a slick, US-style campaign mixing patriotic and Catholic slogans with promises for a strong state and justice system to punish criminals - with the death penalty if necessary.
The party also scored well in the last weeks by attacking the "liberal threat" from the PO's proposal of a 15 per cent income, sales and corporate tax.
The newspaper recalled the Kaczynski brothers' remark that it was a "misunderstanding that the right must always be anti-social". That proved a highly effective message to voters who turned away from the left and chose the PiS as the alternative.
The PiS secured its last-minute win over the PO by attacking its economic policies. The resulting ill-will and bickering is likely to survive beyond the coalition talks and into government.
The zloty fell in trading yesterday, reflecting market disappointment that the pro-business PO would play a junior coalition role.
The Kaczynski brothers have been highly critical of the EU in the past, leading to concerns of chilly relations with Brussels, not to mention Berlin and Moscow.
Diplomatic rows resulted from differing views on the Iraq war, the EU constitution and, most recently, over Berlin-Moscow energy agreements which Warsaw feels leaves it vulnerable to Kremlin whims.
"We wish that the new government is friendly to Europe and pursues a clever eastern politics," said Gazeta Wyborcza. Maciej Rybinksi of the Rzeczpospolita newspaper was less optimistic, saying the result meant "we are threatening to isolate ourselves".
Some Polish political observers suggest that the new government will have enough to keep it busy at home.
Dr Robert Sobiech, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw, said: "It's not a question of major crises in foreign relations, it's surviving the coalition and domestic problems that will be the focus for the coalition."