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Poland's Prime Minister-designate Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said Sunday that he would present a minority government to be sworn in on Monday, but talks to set up a majority coalition would continue. "I am convinced that further talks will bring us closer together and will eventually result in success," Marcinkiewicz said in a televised speech. "As I promised, tomorrow I will present a minority government."
"We talked and discussed the issues fully. The next talks will be good and will bring us even closer," he said.
But Marcinkiewicz did not say when the two parties would meet again. He also refused to name any of the people in the proposed cabinet to be presented to President Aleksander Kwasniewski on Monday morning.
Negotiations on forming a new government broke down Wednesday amid a squabble between Marcinkiewicz's Law and Justice, which won the most seats in last month's parliamentary election, and the smaller Civic Platform over power sharing and economic policy.
Earlier on Sunday, leaders of the two parties drove away without a statement from the archbishop's residence in the port city of Gdansk, where they had been holding last-ditch talks.
Marcinkiewicz said before the talks resumed late Sunday that even if his cabinet is sworn in, he would be open to new negotiations with the pro-market Civic Platform, an ally that could give his government a strong majority and reassure foreign investors.
Marcinkiewicz had hoped that the Civic Platform would at least agree to lend its support to the government in a short-term deal to help pass key policies, including the 2006 budget.
Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk said he believed in "the sense and success of dialogue," suggesting he also favored continuing negotiations.
The two parties had promised to rule together to rid the European Union's largest new member state of corruption and improve employment after years of leftist rule.
The halted talks had rattled financial markets as the prospect of minority rule by Marcinkiewicz's Law and Justice party would supposedly diminish hope for economic reforms.
Analysts say the zloty, the Polish currency, could be buoyed by continued prospects of a coalition with the pro-business Civic Platform.
Reforming public finances to bring deficits below 3 percent of the gross domestic product, the euro-zone limit, is one of the greatest challenges facing the new government, analysts say.
(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2005)
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