WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The radical free-market reforms that Leszek Balcerowicz designed for Poland three decades ago put the country on a path toward spectacular economic growth.

Now the 72-year-old economist is having to defend that legacy.

Rather than being universally hailed, Balcerowicz, who was the finance minister and deputy prime minister in Poland's first democratically elected government after decades of communist rule, has been sometimes blamed for the poverty and high unemployment that befell many Poles, particularly in the turbulent early years of the transformation.

As Poland marks 30 years since that government's formation this month, unfettered free-market capitalism is facing a backlash that has boosted the popularity of Poland's ruling party, Law and Justice, ahead of Oct. 13 parliamentary elections.