For months there had been rumors of an impending leadership shuffle in Warsaw. But after the shake-up was announced last week, power remained exactly where it had begun: in the grip of General Wojciech Jaruzelski. The Polish leader stepped down as Premier and then went before parliament to name as his successor Deputy Prime Minister Zbigniew Messner. Earlier, Jaruzelski had himself elected head of the Council of State, Poland's collective presidency. He will continue in his all-powerful role as Communist Party chief.
Jaruzelski's resignation was an attempt to signal that Poland's political crisis, which began...