The Cabinet of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, led by Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, came to power following the 1989 legislative election. He was nominated by the President as the Prime Minister on 24 August 1989 in order to form a new government after the Sejm rejected the Communist cabinet of Czesław Kiszczak, and subsequently obtained the mandatory motion of confidence in the Sejm on 12 September 1989. The cabinet resigned on 25 November 1990, and the Sejm accepted the resignation of the cabinet on 14 December, though it continued to perform its duties until the formation of the Cabinet of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki on 4 January 1991.
With a majority of ministers endorsed by the Solidarity trade union, it was the first government in Poland and anywhere in Eastern Europe since the late 1940s not to be dominated by Communists and fellow travelers.
Letter of congratulation to former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki.
Origins
The Polish Round Table Agreement, signed in April 1989 between the representatives of the ruling Communist PZPR and the opposition Solidarity trade union, did not initially provide for a government led by Solidarity. Only around 35% of the Sejm would be up for free election alongside the entire Senate, giving the Communist-dominated PRON alliance a seemingly guaranteed majority to form a government.
However, in the resulting elections in June, Solidarity-backed candidates won every seat up for election in the Sejm and all but one seat in the Senate. This victory accelerated the dissolution of the Communist coalition. In a July article entitled "Your President, Our Prime Minister," leading Solidarity member Adam Michnik proposed a grand coalition between Solidarity and reformist elements in the regime, in exchange for the former's support for the election of Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski as President.[1][2][3][4]
Jaruzelski was elected president on 19 July, and designated Interior Minister Gen. Czesław Kiszczak to lead the government, with the intention of giving Solidarity a few token positions.[3] However, Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa entered into negotiations with the PZPR's longtime satellite parties, the Democratic Party and United People's Party, many of whose members were in debt to Solidarity for endorsing them in the second election round.[4] On 17 August 1989, Wałęsa, Roman Malinowski and Jerzy Jóźwiak [pl] announced that Solidarity had formed a coalition with the ZSL and SD, commanding a majority in the Sejm. This denied Kiszczak the chance to form a government, and he resigned.
President Jaruzelski then agreed to appoint a Solidarity member as Prime Minister. Wałęsa proposed Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Bronisław Geremek and Jacek Kuroń as potential candidates, and the coalition partners agreed on the first of the three. Jaruzelski designed Mazowiecki as Prime Minister on 19 August, and the latter was elected by the Sejm on 24 August. The Cabinet was confirmed on 12 September by 402 votes in favor to none against, with 13 abstentions. It was the first government anywhere in Eastern Europe since 1948 with a non-Communist majority, and its appointment was a milestone in the Fall of Communism elsewhere in the region.
^ abPiotr Wróbel, Rebuilding Democracy in Poland, 1989-2004, in M. B. B. Biskupski; James S. Pula; Piotr J. Wrobel (25 May 2010). The Origins of Modern Polish Democracy. Ohio University Press. pp. 273–275. ISBN978-0-8214-1892-5. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
_Rueda_de_prensa_de_Felipe_Gonz%C3%A1lez_con_el_primer_ministro_de_Polonia._Pool_Moncloa._26_de_septiembre_de_1990_(cropped).jpeg)
