Polish left seeks rebirth

Poland's embattled ruling ex-communists, armed with a popular new prime minister, are launching an offensive to shed their sleazy image and win back their core leftist electorate.

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is betting fast economic growth, political calm after months of turmoil and the benefits of European Union membership will help it back to a leading role on Poland's political landscape.

After months of disarray, mounting sleaze scandals and increasing isolation, the SLD won a new lease of life two weeks ago when Prime Minister Marek Belka won parliamentary approval.

Mr Belka is a straight-talking "new left" economist with a clean hands image that contrasts starkly with his predecessor Leszek Miller, a former communist politburo member who sank under a wave of accusations of corruption that affected the party's popularity.

"The SLD is fighting for its political existence and Belka, and his cabinet's potential success, is the best and only vehicle they have," said Andrzej Rychard, sociologist at the Polish Academy of Science.

Mr Belka gave the keynote speech at the SLD's congress this weekend, telling the party faithful to leave the economy to him and promising more handouts to the needy and unemployed.

"Today the left is embarking on a long march and must sort out its ranks and leave the crisis behind," he said on Saturday. The SLD scored a record high of 41 percent in a 2001 general election but polls now put its support in single figures, well behind rival right-wing, anti-European and populist parties.

Regaining support will hinge on its ability to cut the party off from a regular flow of corruption scandals. Little was said about this at the congress even though the daily Gazeta Wyborcza splashed a story on suspected embezzlement by SLD officials across its front page on Saturday.

The SLD has a trump card up its sleeve - it is the most consistently pro-EU party among the main political groups after centrist liberals the Civic Platform, once the engine of Poland's EU drive, turned towards euroscepticism.

Opinion polls show there is a strong core of EU enthusiasts in Poland across the political spectrum, which gives the SLD a chance to re-capture moderate voters.

"A new line of division is emerging in Polish politics: those who want to take full advantage of EU membership... and those engaged in 'Hamletising' - to be or not to be in the EU," Belka told the party meeting.

"They are either going into a blind alley or will end up marginalised... while we will be deriving huge, daily, practical benefits from the EU," he said.

Belka won his first major battle last month, reaching what diplomats see as a good compromise over the EU constitution.