After the 1993 legislative election, the SLD-PSL coalition governments—under the premiership of Waldemar Pawlak (PSL, 1993 95), Józef Oleksy (SLD, 1995 96), and Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (SLD, 1996 97)—continued, albeit cautiously, the pro-market policies of their predecessors.
In the 2001 parliamentary elections, a coalition of candidates from the SLD and the Union of Labour (Unia Pracy; UP) were the majority winners, with Leszek Miller of the SLD becoming prime minister.
Ogórek was chosen to give the ageing SLD a fresh face, but is currently polling 3%.
The traditional ex-communist left, the Democratic Left Alliance party (SLD), has been pushed to the margins, despite having attracted international attention in the early stages of the campaign by nominating 35-year-old former soap opera actor and TV presenter Magdalena Ogórek as its candidate.
This and other recent scandals a new allegation surfaced this week of large-scale corruption involving lawmakers—have soured voters on politicians in general, and on the SLD in particular.
If so, then Jerzy Hausner, deputy prime minister in the current SLD government, may already be acting as his stalking-horse.
Last week Mr Hausner resigned from the SLD, though not from the government, saying that he was tired of "existing political formations" and calling for the creation of a new "socio-liberal" party which was both pro-European and pro-market.But even if Mr Kwasniewski has many of the qualities needed for leading a new centre-left party, his communist past would handicap him.
Public opinion is broadly pro-EU, but low turnout could invalidate a referendum, leaving the decision to a more Eurosceptical parliament.The succession to the SLD is still up for grabs.
There are plenty of private radio stations, however, and newspapers and magazines are undeniably free.But there is now reason to worry that the opposition, which hopes to topple the SLD from power in parliamentary elections on September 21st, will not get as fair a hearing as it should.
SLD politicians have been sachaying between television studios and radio stations praising Mr Napieralski and practically declaring themselves the election's true winners.
