Aleksander Kwasniewski

Belka was fulfilling a promise to head a caretaker government for only one year, but Kwasniewski exercised his right to keep him at the helm for several more months, saying that trying to forge a new government with elections so near would create unnecessary complications.

Marek Belka

Pledging that his government would push ahead with trying to reform the cash-strapped health sector and privatizing parts of the ex-communist country's state-run sector, Belka invited the conservative opposition to join efforts in drafting a 2006 budget, which will be approved after the elections.

Belka recently indicated a desire to join a new centrist party that is trying to get established. Called the Democratic Party, it bills itself as an option for moderate voters fed up both with the governing Democratic Left Alliance, which has been discredited by a string of corruption scandals, and right-wing parties.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 14, 2005
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