The future of Poland's ruling conservative coalition was uncertain last night after official results confirmed that President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a left-leaning former communist, had been swept back into a second term in office. Mr Kwasniewski won more than half the votes in Sunday's election, leaving 11 other candidates trailing far behind and ensuring that a second round of voting would not be necessary.
The candidate for the governing Solidarity coalition, Mr Marian Krzaklewski, was knocked into third place by an independent liberal, Mr Andrzej Olechowski, who has admitted to collaborating with the secret police during the communist era. The former president and Nobel peace laureate, Mr Lech Walesa, received less than 1 per cent of the vote.
Mr Kwasniewski's victory represents a major boost for the ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which enjoys 40 per cent support in opinion polls, compared with 20 per cent for the governing conservatives. Mr Kwasniewski, who makes no secret of his lack of religious faith, has won the respect of Poles for his calm handling of controversial issues and his avoidance of confrontation with the conservative government. He has received much of the credit for bringing Poland into NATO and enjoys good relations with other European leaders, including the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who visited Warsaw earlier this year.
The governing coalition, which lost its parliamentary majority during the summer when a small, liberal party left the government, has introduced unpopular reforms of the health and pensions systems. Although Poland's economy is growing by 5 per cent each year, unemployment is close to 14 per cent and many Poles, especially in rural areas, feel left behind by the move to a market economy.
The markets were relaxed about Mr Kwasniewski's re-election, a reflection of the view held by many analysts that a left-wing government could have more success in pushing through economic reforms necessary for Poland to qualify for entry to the EU.
Mr Kwasniewski has identified EU membership as the primary ambition of his second term in office. But Warsaw's hopes for an early accession date received a blow yesterday when the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that Berlin has dropped its demand that Poland must be included in the first wave of new EU members.
The magazine identified a number of EU member-states, including Ireland, as favouring allowing the three most advanced applicant states - Hungary, Slovenia and Estonia - to join the EU ahead of Poland.
