02.10.2005
POLAND'S ELECTIONS:
Marek Borowski – Friend of Russia, and of the Russia's Opponents
(8-10%)
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Simon Araloff, AIA European section
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| Marek Borowski |
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Marek Borowski was born on January, 4, 1946, in Warsaw. He is married, has a son. The father of this future presidential candidate was a convinced communist and therefore, political conversations were often in the house of Marek Borowski's parents. During his study at school he joined the Polish Socialist Youth Union (Zwiazek Socjalistycznej Mlodziezy Polskiej - ZSMP). He entered an elite educational institution on those times - the Higher school of planning and statistics, the faculty of foreign trade. However he didn't graduate. In March, 1968, being only 22 years old, he organized a protest action against the intervention of the Polish police into the campus life and was excluded instantly both from the high school, and from the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - PZPR). Despite of it, Borovski didn't lost courage and became clothes store clerk in the "Junior" - the large shopping center of Warsaw. The party's membersip card was returned to him lately, however, a number of restrictions were imposed on him - for example, the trips abroad were forbidden.
Marek Borowski remained a member of PZPR till 1989, working in the Ministry of Internal Market (Ministerstwo Rynku Wewnetrznego). In 1989 he joined a new reformatory movement in the party, which received a name "The Movement of 8th" (Ruch 8 lipca). However, in the same 1989 the United Workers' Party seized to exist. On the wave of political changes, Borowski reached the post of the Deputy Minister of Home Market in the first post-communistic government of the Eastern Europe established by Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1989-1991), and then in the government of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki (1991).
However, despite membership in the post-communistic cabinets, Marek Borowski did not hasten to refuse his left political views at all. For this reason in 1991 he became one of the founders of the new Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej - SLD), majority of members of which came from the former PZPR. Actually, since then Borowski did not leave the walls of the Sejm. In 1993-1994 he occupied the posts of vice-premier and the Minister of Finance in Waldemar Pawlak's government. In 2001, after the victory of SDL in the parliamentary elections, he was elected to the post of the speaker of the Sejm (Marszalek Sejmu).
A new turn in Marek Borowski's political career took place in March, 2004. On a background of an increasing general crisis in left camp Borowski declared of his leaving the Democratic Left Alliance and creating of a new left-centrist party - Polish Social Democracy (Socjaldemokracja Polska - SdPL). Close to twenty Members of Parliament left together with him the lines of SLD. Subsequently SdPL was joined by the large regional organizations, members of the Sejm and figures from the Union of Work (Unia Pracy). Officially proclaimed purpose of the creation of a new party was "To adjust Polish law and institutions to E.U. requirements, improve public finances and reform health insurance". Commenting on Borowski's actions Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski declared: "Marek Borowski has once again proved, that he is a worthy person". The split of the ruling " Union of the Left Democrats" and creation of a new Left-wing party headed by Marek Borowski became one of the reasons of the decision of the Prime Minister Leszek Miller to resign. After Miller's leaving the post of Prime Minister, Borowski supported Marek Belka as a nominee to this post.
The rumors were running in the Sejm tha Borowski's abandoning of SLD was a part of a secret arrangement with President Kwasniewski - for the sake of changing of the image of the left camp after Miller's extremely unsuccessful term. If it is so, then Kwasniewski and Borowski's maneuver didn't bring a desirable result to the left. The weakened SLD and several tiny, unable to gain political weight formations, such as SdPL, could not really compete with the right bloc in the last parliamentary elections. The result is known: SLD managed to get only 10.8 % of the vote, and SdPL didn't pass the electoral barrier. The chances of Borowski to become the President are also not too great. The polls predict only about 10 % of the vote to him.
The views of Borowski on the foreign policy differ substantially from those of his opponents from the right camp. First of all, it concerns the relations with Russia. As the former communist, Borowski keeps a positive attitude to the eastern neighbor of Poland. In December, 2002, as the speaker of the Sejm, he visited Moscow with an official visit, where he met with his Russian colleague, the speaker of Duma, Gennady Seleznev, and also with the Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov. The Russian press marked then with pleasure, that the Polish visitor repeatedly supported strengthening the Russian - Polish inter-parliamentary cooperation. However, his sympathies towards Moscow have not prevented Borowski from active support of its opponents in Ukraine. In 2003-2004 he actively participated in supporting of the Ukrainian opposition led by the present Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
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