Former president wants new left wing coalition

Aleksander Kwasniewski: photo - PAP/Pawel Supernak

After a meeting on Tuesday with the new libertarian Palikot Movement, which gained 10 percent in the 9 October parliamentary elections, Kwasniewski said that he aims to hold a demonstration involving all centre-left and left wing groups, on 1 May, a labour day holiday in Poland.

“My plan is this: by the time of the next election, we create a type of centre-left coalition to give a signal to voters on the left, that there is an alternative to the ruling Civic Platform,” Kwasniewski, who was president of Poland from 1995 to 2005, told journalists.

“This is the goal. Will it work? We'll see. However as a veteran of the left, I would like to achieve this goal.”

He said in February he would be having a meeting with environmentalists to “start dialogue”.

The left has been out of power in Poland since the 2005 election, which saw the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), in power over the previous four years, badly beaten after successive corruption scandals. The party has not polled well ever since, leaving Poland to be governed by centre-right and conservative groups.

Earlier this month the SLD elected Leszek Miller, a former prime minister of Poland, back to lead the party.

Kwasniewski mentioned yesterday the possibility of creating a common list of left wing candidates for the next European parliamentary elections. (pg)