Autumn Crisis
President Aleksander Kwaśniewski set the Sejm and Senate elections for Sept. 25. Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, on the other hand, set the first round of the presidential election for Oct. 9 and a potential second round for Oct. 23. At the same time, Cimoszewicz announced that he would not run for president and that he would retire from politics after the end of the current parliamentary term.

On May 29, the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) gathered for a convention in Warsaw to elect its new leadership and adopt an election program declaration. This occurred after the party's entire leadership, including chairman Józef Oleksy, resigned May 21 to "ensure cohesion and efficiency in managing the party and give the people clear signals," as Oleksy put it.

However, the convention was held in an atmosphere far from the optimism. "The SLD needs reincarnation because resuscitation did not work," said Joanna Senyszyn, a deputy known for her unconventional and often curt statements. Senyszyn blamed the crisis on politicians such as Kwaśniewski, "whom we breastfed but who dumped us and remembers us only when he wants something;" Prime Minister Marek Belka, "who is ashamed of the SLD;" and Marek Borowski, leader of the Polish Social Democracy (SDPL), "who stabs you in the back."

Secretary-General Marek Dyduch was the only former SLD bigwig to submit his candidacy for party leader. However, he was supported by only 147 delegates. Eventually, Wojciech Olejniczak, the 31-year-old minister of agriculture in Belka's government, billed as one of the chief architects of the success story in the Polish countryside after Poland's European Union accession, became the new party leader with 267 votes. After the vote, Olejniczak said that in the coming days he would resign as minister and focus on his new party position. He added he was aware of the hard work ahead and the time needed to rehabilitate the party and regain voter confidence.

Grzegorz Napieralski, another 31-year-old who was until now vice-chairman, became the new secretary-general of the SLD.


Agreement on Lviv Cemetery?
A resolution of the controversy over the Lviv Eaglets' Cemetery is finally in sight. The Lviv City Council May 19 approved the text of an inscription on a central plaque in the cemetery. "The main dispute has ceased," said Zinoviy Siryk, chairman of the council. "We have asked Presidents Yushchenko and Kwaśniewski to approve the decisions of the Polish-Ukrainian Committee for the Eaglets' Cemetery in an inter-state protocol, and we hope that the cemetery will be reopened as soon as possible."

The text was agreed on a week earlier in Kiev at a meeting with the participation of Andrzej Przewoźnik, secretary of the Fight and Martyrdom Remembrance Council, Jerzy Bahr, head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ukrainian secretary of state, and Lviv city officials. The new text will read that "This is the resting place of Polish soldiers who perished for their country," said Przewoźnik, adding that the council also decided that monuments to American pilots and French infantrymen who took part in the defense of Lviv would return to the cemetery.

The Lviv Eaglets' Cemetery is part of the Lychakovsky Cemetery in Lviv. It is home to the ashes of Poles killed during fights with Ukrainians in 1918-19 and during the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1920. Almost 3,000 soldiers are buried there, most of them young boys, hence the name Eaglets' Cemetery.


The Dark Side of Sports
Following a ruling passed by a court in Wrocław May 23, Antoni Fijarczyk, a first-division soccer referee suspected of accepting a zl.100,000 bribe for "fixing" match scores, will spend three months in jail. Fijarczyk's accomplice from a Silesian board of referees has also been arrested. The Polish Soccer Association (PZPN) has indefinitely suspended both suspects as members of the PZPN Board of Referees.

"In addition to charges of corruption, the men have been accused of membership in an organized group involved in fixing soccer matches," said Leszek Karpina, press spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Wrocław. "This practice could be described as large scale." The soccer community has for years been rife with rumors about "Sunday miracles" involving unexpected scores, which in many cases were the result of partial referees at work.

Fijarczyk was detained after a sting operation May 21. Earlier police determined that he intended to fix two matches for financial gain. Officers handed him zl.100,000 on a forest path; the referee hid the money in the spare tire of his car and was then detained.


VE on the Sea
The submarine ORP Kondor visited England in early May to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Allied Victory in Europe.

During World War II, Polish ships traveled a total of 1.21 million nautical miles, participating in 784 convoy escorts, 1,162 patrols and sea operations. In the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest battle of WW II, Polish ships, including destroyers Piorun, Garland, Błyskawica, Kujawiak and Krakowiak, made their names famous in heavy service involving escorting convoys from the United States to Great Britain, and from the British Isles to the Mediterranean as well as Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. They often had to fend off attacking German aircraft and u-boats, sustaining severe losses. The ORP Piorun participated in an operation to sink the most powerful German battleship the Bismarck. The Polish ship first spotted the German vessel and, despite being outgunned, it "tied it up" with artillery fire, which enabled the Allies to regroup their forces and launch a successful attack.

Polish sub ORP Kondor from the 3rd Flotilla in Gdynia paid an official visit to Londonderry in Great Britain, where on May 8, together with vessels from Belgium, Ireland and Canada, it took part in the observances of the 60th anniversary of victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.