Ukraine's leaders expect relations with Poland to remain productive (09/30/01)

Ukraine's leaders expect relations with Poland to remain productive

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A day after Poland's social-democratically oriented Union of Leftist Democrats-Workers' Union won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections, Ukraine's leading political figures praised the results and called them an assurance that Polish-Ukraine relations will remain stable and productive.

Poland's voting public heavily supported the political coalition during elections on September 23, giving it 41.4 percent of the vote and handing it a decisive 29 percent margin of victory over its nearest rival, the Citizens' Platform, which came in at 12.7 percent.

Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma applauded the vote, which will allow the Union of Leftist Democrats-Workers' Union coalition to form a coalition government, as well as give it leadership of the Parliament. He said the outcome assures continued close relations between Ukraine and Poland.

"When the president, the government and the Parliament are part of one team, then 99 percent of the problems are solved," said Mr. Kuchma, who has had severe problems with his own Parliament and even tried at one point to rein it in with changes to the Constitution.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski founded and leads the major party in the social-democratic political coalition. He and President Kuchma have had a close working relationship since the two came to power in the mid-1990s.

Meanwhile, Verkhovna Rada Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk, who is also the chairman of the Social Democratic Party (United) in Ukraine, said on September 26 that he believes the victory of the social democratic forces in Poland presages the future of his own party in parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for March 31.

"We believe this is also the future for Ukraine, which for me is particularly pleasing," said Mr. Medvedchuk.

He explained that the growth of the SDPU in Ukraine closely parallels the development of Poland's leftist democratic forces.

"Ukraine is about four to five years behind Poland in political development," explained Mr. Medvedchuk. "Where the Polish social democrats had about 5-6 percent of the vote in the early 1990s, we had about that amount in the 1998 elections. We expect about 20 percent support in the upcoming elections, which they had in 1997."

However, at least one noted political scientist said Ukraine's SDPU and the social democratic forces of Poland have little in common.

"About the only thing that unites them is that both have members in their respective Parliaments and both take part in elections," explained Volodymyr Polokhalo, editor of the respected political science journal Political Thought, after his return from Warsaw on September 25, where he had observed the Polish elections.

Mr. Polokhalo said the social democrats of Poland's Union of Leftist Democrats-Workers' Union political coalition have taken on all the characteristics of a classic Western European liberalism and are supported by a good portion of the Polish population.

He noted that, as with the SDPU, most of Ukraine's political parties were formed from the top down and are representative of a certain ruling elite rather than a political ideology, with the possible exception of Ukraine's Communist Party. In Poland, on the other hand, the major parties developed from the grassroots level and reflect strong, voter-based ideologies.

Mr. Polokhalo said that, in general, the Polish elections, unlike what has occurred in recent years in Ukraine, were free of political fraud with no allegations or complaints of cheating from either voters or political opponents.

He commented that Ukraine's political system has fallen far behind Poland's in development - farther apart than the two countries were five or even 10 years ago.

"Today the two systems are more different than ever. In Poland today there is a highly competitive election system with all the elements that are traditional for a European system," said Mr. Polokhalo. "In Poland the use of [governmental] administrative resources is not even considered."

The political scientist said that, while Polish President Kwasniewski is closely tied to the social democrats, his influence in the campaign season and on the elections in general was restrained and minimal.

Mr. Polokhalo did note that a high level of apathy and discouragement has taken hold in Poland, which accounts for the relatively low 48 percent turnout for the September 23 elections.

The Ukrainian political scientist also said that the biggest surprise of the elections was that the Solidarity Party, once led by Lech Walesa, did not break the 5 percent threshold to qualify for seats in the Parliament and will have no legislative representatives in either the Polish Senate or the Sejm for the next four years.

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