By MICHAEL SZPORER
A former prime minister of Poland -- who might become its next president -- recently spoke at the Library about cooperation between East and West Europe.
Hanna Suchoka, a member of the Sejm (lower house of the Polish parliament), was introduced by Dr. Billington as part of the Library's European Lecture Series. About 200 people attended the lecture on Feb. 28.
Ms. Suchocka, who has been mentioned as a possible Freedom Union presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, spoke about the need to overcome the "us" and "them" ethos among East and West Europeans. Freedom Union is the largest post-Solidarity opposition party in Poland.
"I am convinced that the vision of the future of Europe must be created now. If this does not happen," Ms. Suchocka cautioned, "then we will have Europe forever divided into East and West with the dividing line running through the middle. In this respect, Europe, as a political and cultural construct formed over hundreds of years, could be reduced to a mere historical tag."
Ms. Suchocka, originally a compromise candidate of the Civic Committee, Solidarity union's political arm, is credited with holding together a fragile coalition government of seven parties for 15 months during a critical period of economic transition. The longest-reigning Solidarity prime minister July 10, 1992, to Oct. 26, 1993, she was also the first woman to rule Poland since Queen Jadwiga in the 14th century.
During her tenure, the last Soviet troops left Poland and a modern taxation system was established. In spite of the early setbacks, the prime minister was able to widen her circle of support and pass a mass privatization bill that provided for the distribution of shares in more than 400 companies.
The fledgling Solidarity government faced dissension in its ranks. While Ms. Suchocka's personal approval rating was 75 percent in opinion polls, her stringent economic policies to curb inflation were a cause of discontent that, after a series of strikes in health care and education, led the unionist parliamentarians to withdraw their support. The Solidarity coalition government led by Ms. Suchocka fell by just a single vote on May 28, 1993.
Since the parliamentary elections of Sept. 19, 1993, the left coalition (the postcommunist Democratic Left Alliance and the Peasant Party), representing only about a third of the electorate, has been in power.
"As a woman I had a better chance of forming a government because women often eliminate conflicts," she told the press after her name was recommended to the Sejm by President Lech Walesa. In her inaugural address to the parliament, she called for reconciliation, for calming partisan disputes.
Ms. Suchocka first became a member of the parliament in 1980, the year of the occupation strike at the Lenin Shipyards at Gdansk, which brought then unemployed electrician Lech Walesa to the political forefront and, for the first time in history, forced a Communist government to the negotiating table with an independent union.
Ms. Suchocka was one of only a handful of parliamentarians who opposed the imposition of martial law by Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski on Dec. 13, 1981, and who voted against the bill outlawing Solidarity, casting her lot with the resistance movement. For her act of defiance, she was expelled from the Democratic Party (a satellite party of the Communist PZPR that at times asserted a degree of independence), which she represented.
In her lecture as guest of the Library's European Division, "Poland in Europe: Five Years After the Transition," Ms. Suchocka, who is sometimes compared to Margaret Thatcher as "the Iron Lady of Eastern Europe," struck a conciliatory tone. In the new democracies "more stress is put on one's own national identity than on the future of Europe," Ms. Suchocka observed. "The Cold War created many more divisions than were apparent from the outset. The world was divided not only into military and economic blocs, but also even deeper divisions occurred in consciousness, mentality and culture. Because of this, the building of the new world order was held back."
The future of Europe, according to Ms. Suchocka, will depend on whether "fears might outweigh the hopes. Will economic competition become more important than the possibilities of common projects? Are we going to close ourselves off from one another? ... To what extent can we transform the two value systems that were ruling both parts of Europe for the last 40 years into a coherent system of common values that would constitute a basis for a common European identity?"
Michael Szporer is a copyright examiner who has a specialty in Slavic-area studies.