POLAND: Polish leaders came together late last night, a day after Poles voted by a huge majority to join the European Union, to discuss the unstable minority government that is in danger of collapsing with just 11 months before EU accession. Derek Scally reports from Warsaw
Final results for the referendum announced yesterday showed that 77.45 per cent of voters said Yes to joining the EU, 22.55 per cent were against with a turnout of 58.85 per cent.
But there was little time for celebration in Warsaw yesterday for the embattled Prime Minister, Mr Leszek Miller, who leads an unstable minority government.
The result was a much-needed victory for him as he faced rank and file members of his Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) at a party conference yesterday to explain the party's plummeting popularity.
The minority government faces huge domestic problems in coming months, most critically the impending draft budget and 18 per cent unemployment, the highest rate in the OECD.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski has made it clear that with accession looming there is no time to waste on further domestic political squabbles of the kind that have blighted Polish politics in the last months.
He is anxious for a cross-party solution to the current problems and met all political party leaders yesterday before receiving Mr Miller yesterday evening.
Political observers in Warsaw praised what they called the "shrewd" electorate for putting aside domestic concerns and their dislike of the government to vote for EU accession.
"The result showed that Polish voters are much wiser than anyone thought," said Dr Robert Sobiech, a professor at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of Warsaw University. "They made their final decision independent of the government and its current problems and made their decision for the long-term."
A spokesman for Pope John Paul said the Polish-born pontiff was pleased with the result of the referendum. "The Holy Father said he hoped that Poland would be able to contribute to the European Union with its moral and spiritual values and religious convictions," said a spokesman in Croatia, where the Pope was on his 100th foreign trip.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, passed on his congratulations from Berlin. "It was never in question that Poland belongs to Europe," he said, adding he was sure that "through the EU accession, the excellent German-Polish relationship will receive a new dynamic".
The European Commission said in a statement: "Welcome Poland, thank you Poland, this is a turning point in Europe's history."
The referendum result prompted a nearly unanimous ecstatic outpouring in yesterday's newspapers. Gazeta Wyborcza, the leading daily, printed "YES We're in the Union" on its front page, telling readers: "Our country, so often betrayed by our own and foreign powers and locked up in the cellar of history voted yes, with great hope, joy and the knowledge that this was our own free decision," said the newspaper.
To cross the 50 per cent turnout hurdle and validate the poll, more than 15 million Poles voted on Sunday, larger than the population of seven of the accession countries.
The conservative Rzeczpospolita newspaper called EU accession the "crowning moment" of Poland's history since the end of communism. "It has been accomplished. We have said yes to the European Union. We have confirmed that we want to participate with equal rights on the creation of a united Europe," the newspaper said.
However it added a note of caution: "It is still not be clear what place we will take in the EU. That depends on how we are able to use our potential. One thing is clear: we will have to keep fighting for what we want."
"Misled by Propaganda" was the headline of the radical right-wing newspaper Nasz Dziennik. "Let's not wait for the catastrophe, let's fight for information. There is enough time until May 1st, 2004, to bring down the SLD government and hold a new referendum based on truthful information."
Mr Lech Walesa, the former leader of Poland's Solidarity trade union and the country's first post-communist president, said he was relieved. Her admitted he was "very frightened" after just 17.8 per cent of voters turned out on the first day of voting on Saturday.