Polish PM to submit resignation

Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka was to submit his resignation today to fulfil a promise to head a caretaker government for only one year, an offer that President Aleksander Kwasniewski was expected to reject.

Belka’s offer comes after a parliamentary vote on Thursday kept his ruling Democratic Left Alliance in power for several more months until elections this fall.

The 460-seat Sejm, or lower house, fell short of a two-thirds majority required to dissolve the legislature in a vote on a motion from the conservative opposition. Had the motion succeeded, it would have forced elections in six weeks’ time.

The strongest support for dissolution came from Poland’s centre-right opposition parties, including Law and Justice and Civic Platform. In polls, both are ahead of the Democratic Left Alliance – which Belka has made clear he plans to leave for a new centrist party once out of government.

Belka, who had favoured early elections, said he would hand in his resignation today to Kwasniewski to fulfil a promise that he made when he succeeded Leszek Miller in May 2004 to govern for only one year.

Kwasniewski, however, had vowed not to accept the resignation.

Kwasniewski has made clear he wants Belka to stay at least through a May 16-17 Council of Europe meeting in Warsaw, avoiding a political vacuum when Poland hosts other European leaders.