A failure to resolve, or even to seriously address, underlying factors in Poland's political, social and economic crisis was the foremost outcome of the country's "first free elections" since World War II. The fragility of the new parliament — which may be unable to create a government — advances the long-term slide towards a non-parliamentary authoritarian regime headed by President Lech Walesa or some other candidate.
Sally Low
"Solidarity has always been the umbrella that sheltered this government from the rain, but now we have closed the umbrella." In Wroclaw, the poster of a folded red and white umbrella advertised a two-hour strike as part of Solidarity's May 22 national day of protest.
Sally Low reviews Boris Kagarlitsky's book, Farewell Perestroika: A Soviet Chronicle.