2014年经济学人 波兰政府 能力的体现

Poland's government

Flashes of competence¹

Poland's new prime minister is matter-of-fact to a fault

Ewa Kopacz

AS A chain-smoking doctor, Ewa Kopacz clearly has a certain appetite for personal risk. In her case, it also seems to exhaust any appetite for risk. But as she prepares to take over as prime minister of Poland, following Donald Tusk²'s elevation³ to the presidency⁴ of the European Council, her central message is one of safety. Her main promise to voters is that she will not make any radical⁵ changes before next year's parliamentary elections.

In foreign policy that means dropping the confrontational⁶ approach to Russia favoured by Mr Tusk and Radek Sikorski, his foreign minister. In domestic policy Ms Kopacz promises more nursery schools, more old-people's homes, help for students wanting to study abroad and measures to reduce youth unemployment.

“I don't suspect she has any vision,” says Jacek Zakowski, a Polish journalist. Ms Kopacz is a pragmatic centrist, he says, with perhaps a bit more of a natural sensitivity than Mr Tusk.

Although she sets out to present a motherly public persona, Ms Kopacz occasionally displays flashes of Thatcherite steel. When she was health minister in 2009, she refused to be browbeaten⁷ into mandating⁸ an untested swine-flu vaccine⁹, despite fears of a global epidemic¹⁰. After the crash of a government plane in 2010 in Russia, which killed 96 people, including Poland's president, Ms Kopacz went to Moscow to take part in the stomach-churning work of identifying the dead.

Ms Kopacz has promised similar toughness during this week's European Union talks on the reduction of carbon emissions¹¹, resisted by Poland, which relies heavily on coal for its power. She has promised her public cheap electricity prices and even threatened to veto the climate negotiations¹² if they do not go her way.

The new prime minister has done a good job of seizing control of the ruling Civic¹³ Platform party (PO). Some feared the party was about to destroy itself. But Ms Kopacz has carried along her biggest rivals, including Grzegorz Schetyna, who is now foreign minister, and Cezary Grabarczyk, who took the justice portfolio¹⁴. As a result, PO is firmly under her control.

Jacek Rostowski, the former finance minister, on the other hand, has been sidelined by Ms Kopacz, who refused to make him chief of her team of economic advisers¹⁵. Mr Sikorski was kicked upstairs to be speaker of parliament, but he is already in trouble with the new prime minister. She berated¹⁶ him this week after he was forced to make a humiliating retreat, first telling an American political-news website that Vladimir Putin had suggested to Mr Tusk that Poland and Russia carve up Ukraine between them. He later admitted that Mr Tusk had not met one-on-one with Mr Putin during his trip in February 2008 to Moscow. “My memory failed me,” he said.

Poles seem to be taking to Ms Kopacz. They had grown tired of Mr Tusk who came to power in 2007. Ms Kopacz's early flashes of competence have easily surpassed the low bar set for her. A new poll shows PO at 34% compared with 30% for its main rival, the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS). (PO was trailing PiS in polls in the last year of the Tusk government.)

Ms Kopacz will lead her party into local elections in November before the national elections next year. Party activists¹⁷ have become more optimistic about PO's chances of winning both. If Ms Kopacz is still prime minister in 2016, she will need to define some form of a vision for Poland. “Will it be a deregulation agenda or a lightly social one? I don't know,” says Ryszard Petru, president of the Association of Polish Economists¹⁸; “there are a lot of questions and not many answers.”

1 competence   

n.能力，胜任，称职

参考例句：

• This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
• These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。

2 tusk   

n.獠牙，长牙，象牙

参考例句：

• The wild boar had its tusk sunk deeply into a tree and howled desperately.野猪的獠牙陷在了树里，绝望地嗥叫着。
• A huge tusk decorated the wall of his study.他书房的墙上装饰着一支巨大的象牙。

3 elevation   

n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高

参考例句：

• The house is at an elevation of 2,000 metres.那幢房子位于海拔两千米的高处。
• His elevation to the position of General Manager was announced yesterday.昨天宣布他晋升总经理职位。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

6 confrontational   

adj.挑衅的；对抗的

参考例句：

• Fans love rappers partly because they strike such a confrontational pose. 乐迷热爱这些饶舌艺人一定程度上是因为他们所采取的那种战斗姿态。 来自互联网
• You prefer a non confrontational approach when it comes to resolving disputes. 面对争端，你不喜欢采用对抗性的手段来解决。 来自互联网

7 browbeaten   

v.（以言辞或表情）威逼，恫吓( browbeat的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They were browbeaten into accepting the offer. 他们被威逼接受了提议。
• Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? 我为什么老受折磨，老受欺侮，老挨骂，一辈子也翻不了身呢？ 来自辞典例句

8 mandating   

托管（mandate的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Current requirements mandating that committees keep minutes are too general. 目前对委员会要保持详细记录的指令性要求，还是太过一般化了。
• Mandating that workers who quit without permission forfeit a month's wages. 规定工人私自离岗将受到罚没一个月工资的处罚。

9 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

10 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

11 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

12 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

13 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

14 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

15 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

16 berated   

v.严厉责备，痛斥( berate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Marion berated Joe for the noise he made. 玛丽昂严厉斥责乔吵吵闹闹。 来自辞典例句
• It berated Mussolini for selling out to Berlin. 它严厉谴责了墨索里尼背叛、投靠柏林的行径。 来自辞典例句

17 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》