President Kwasniewki presents five candidates for NBP head
At yesterday's meetings with leaders of the main parties, President Aleksander Kwasniewski presented the candidates to replace Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz as the head of the National Bank of Poland (NBP). The list included two former finance ministers: Leszek Balcerowicz and Marek Belka, who is currently the president's chief economic advisor, as well as Jerzy Stopyra, a deputy president of NBP, Dariusz Filar, the chief economist of Bank Pekao, and Andrzej Slawinski, the NBP president's advisor. Although the latter three are a little less known than Balcerowicz or Belka, they seem to have the advantage of being politically independent. The president seems to favour Balcerowicz and is expected to appoint him to the post within the next few weeks. However, the candidate must receive the approval of 231 MPs of the 460-strong Sejm. The opposition SLD is going to support Marek Belka, according to the party's leader Leszek Miller, while UW would seek support for Balcerowicz, who is UW's leader until December. PSL is going to support either Stopyra, Slawinski, or Filar, and the ruling AWS said it was still to consider the issue. It is probable that it form a temporary coalition with UW to promote Balcerowicz as a counterbalance to a possible SLD-run government that might be formed after next year's parliamentary elections.
Źródło:IntelliNews Daily
