Lech Kaczyński

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Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (help·info), pronounced [ˈlɛx alɛˈksandɛr kaˈtʃɨɲskʲi] (born June 18, 1949) is the President of the Republic of Poland and a politician of the conservative party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice, PiS.) Kaczyński served as President of Warsaw from 2002 until December 22, 2005, the day before his presidential inauguration. He is the identical twin brother of the former Prime Minister of Poland, Jarosław Kaczyński.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Early life

The Kaczyński twins were born in Warsaw as sons of Rajmund (an engineer who served as a soldier of the Armia Krajowa in World War II and a veteran of the Warsaw Uprising) and Jadwiga (a philologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences). Lech can be distinguished from his brother by a mole on his left cheek.^[1] As children, the brothers starred in a 1962 Polish film, The Two Who Stole the Moon (Polish title O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc), based on a popular children's story by Kornel Makuszyński.

Lech is a graduate of law and administration of Warsaw University. In 1980 he was awarded his PhD by Gdańsk University. In 1990 he had his habilitation in labour and employment law. He later assumed professorial positions at Gdańsk University and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

[edit] Marriage and family

He is married to Maria Kaczyńska and has one daughter, Marta (born 1980).

[edit] Opposition

In the 1970s Lech Kaczyński was an activist in the democratic anti-Communist movement in Poland, Workers' Defence Committee, as well as the Independent Trade Union movement. In August, 1980, he became an adviser to the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee in the Gdańsk Shipyard and the Solidarity movement. During the martial law introduced by the communists in December, 1981, he was interned as an anti-socialist element. After his release from internment, he returned to trade union activities, becoming a member of the underground Solidarity.

When Solidarity was legalized again in the late 1980s, Lech Kaczyński was an active adviser of Lech Wałęsa and his Komitet Obywatelski Solidarność in 1988. From February to April, 1989, he participated in Polish Round Table talks.

[edit] Porozumienie Centrum

Kaczyński was elected a senator in elections of June 1989, and became the vice-chairman of Solidarity trade union NSZZ Solidarność. In Polish parliamentary election, 1991, Kaczyński was elected to the parliament as a non-party member. He was, however, supported by the electoral committee Center Civic Alliance, closely related but not identical to the political party Porozumienie Centrum (Center Agreement) led by his brother. He was also the main adviser and supporter of Lech Wałęsa when he was elected the President of Poland in December 1990. Wałęsa nominated Kaczyński to be the Security Minister in the Presidential Chancellery but fired him in 1992, due to a conflict concerning Jan Olszewski government. That event marks the beginning of a long conflict between Wałęsa and the Kaczyński brothers. According to Lech Wałęsa, who recently criticized the Kaczyński brothers, a reason was that "His approach is to first destroy and then think about what to build". ^[2]

Lech Kaczyński was the President of the Supreme Chamber of Control (Najwyższa Izba Kontroli, NIK) from February 1992 - May 1995 and later Minister of Justice and Attorney General in Jerzy Buzek's government between June 2000, and his dismissal in July 2001. In this time he was very popular because he fought corruption.

[edit] Law and Justice

In 2001 he founded the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość party with his brother Jarosław. He was the president of the party between 2001 and 2003.

[edit] President of Warsaw

In 2002, Kaczynski became the mayor of Warsaw. As mayor, he supported the construction of the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising.

He banned a gay movement parade in 2004 and 2005, stating the lack of necessary documentation by organisers as the reason but also saying the parade would promote a "homosexual lifestyle" ^[3]. He also cited as reasons for the ban security measures, it being offensive to public morals and the fact that the parade coincided with the unveiling of a monument to general Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski). In 2004 his opponents called his actions unconstitutional and he has been repeatedly criticised by the Mazowieckie voivodeship administration, which officially supervises the Mayor of Warsaw. In 2005, he allowed a counter-demonstration, the "Parade of Normality." ^[4]

As President of Warsaw, Lech Kaczyński established a historical commission in 2004 to estimate material losses that were inflicted upon the city by the Germans in the Second World War (an estimated 85% of the city was destroyed in the Warsaw Uprising) as a direct response to heightened claims coming from German expellees from Poland. The commission estimated the losses on at least 45.3 billion euros ($54 billion) in current value. The Deutsche Welle and others described his presention of the findings as anti-German card to win voters for Kaczyński’s presidency. Deutsche Welle quoted political analyst Stanisław Mocek who in his critique of various elements of Kaczyński’s campaign described the timing of the investigation of war time losses of Warsaw as an attempt to "win over older voters who still vividly remember the war." That view was rebuked by Kaczyński, who replied: "Work on this report was begun in May 2004; it is not linked in any way whatsoever to the electoral calendar."^[5]

[edit] Presidency

[edit] Presidential elections

On March 19, 2005, he formally declared his intention to run for president in the October 2005 election.

Elected President of the Republic of Poland on October 23, he assumed the office on December 23, 2005 by taking an oath before the National Assembly.

[edit] Domestic policy

In his first public speech as president-elect, Kaczyński said his presidency would have the fundamental task amelioration of the Republic. This will consist of "purging various pathologies from our life, most prominently including crime (...), particularly criminal corruption – that entire, great rush to obtain unjust enrichment, a rush that is poisoning society, [and preventing the state from ensuring] elementary social security, health security, basic conditions for the development of the family [and] the security of commerce and the basic conditions for economic development.^[6]

During his inauguration he stated several goals he would pursue during his presidency. Among those concerning internal affairs were: increasing social solidarity in Poland, bringing justice to those who were responsible or affected by communist crimes in the People's Republic of Poland, fighting corruption, providing security in economy, and safety for development of family. Kaczyński also stated that he would seek to abolish differences between regions. In his speech he also put emphasis on combining modernisation with tradition and remembering the teachings of Pope John Paul II.

[edit] Foreign affairs

In foreign affairs President Kaczyński noted that many of Poland's problems were involved with lack of energy security and this issue would have to be resolved in order to protect Polish interests. Strengthening ties with USA while continuing to develop relations within the European Union are two main goals of Polish foreign affairs, as well as improving relations with France and Germany despite several problems in relations with the latter. Outside those issues the main tasks are developing a visible strategic partnership with Ukraine and greater cooperation with the Baltic states and Georgia.

Defense Minister Radosław Sikorski compared the planned Russia to Germany gas pipeline to the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and Foreign minister Anna Fotyga stated that the pipeline was a threat to Poland's energy security.^[7]

In November 2006 Helsinki European Union--Russia meeting Poland vetoed the launch of EU-Russia partnership talks due to Russian ban on Polish meat and plant products imports.^[8]

As a reaction to claims by obscure German exile group Preussische Treuhand, that represents post-1945 German expellees from Eastern Europe, the Polish Foreign Minister Fotyga (protégé of Kaczynski) mistakenly threatened reopen a 1990 Treaty fixing the Oder and Neisse rivers as the border between the two countries instead of Treaty about Neighborhood signed in the same year.^[9][10]

[edit] taz article controversy

On 26 June 2006, the German left-wing newspaper die tageszeitung (taz) published a satirical article about Lech Kaczyński, titled Poland's new potato.^[11] The writing formed part of a series of satirical characterisations of politicians titled Rogues who want to rule the world. Previous subjects of the series included, among others, the dictators Saddam Hussein (before being toppled in 2003)^[12] and Alexander Lukashenko^[13], as well as German politicians such as Ulla Schmidt^[14] and Sigmar Gabriel.^[15] The article lampooned, among other things, the Kaczyński brothers' perceived xenophobic, homophobic and authoritarian stance:

Now Parliament is to rubber-stamp more than a hundred laws without irritating the government's glorious nose with any criticism. The Kaczyńskis' role model is Józef Piłsudski, the inventor of the Poland of 1919, who in 1926 came up with "guided democracy" and greased the path of the semi-fascist military regime of 1935. Like Piłsudski, the Kaczyńskis are Poles up to their ears, and the Fatherland fits them like a glove. Both have proved that they are clean fore and aft: Lech, who has on several occasion prohibited public buttocks on the men of Warsaw, and even more so Jarosław, who's living with his own mother – but at least without a marriage certificate.^[16]

The Polish government soon expressed its strong disapproval:

• Lech Kaczyński called the article "disgusting and mean" and on July 21, 2006, he said that that he knew of no comparable attacks against politicians and their families.^[17]
• His brother Jarosław declared that "an insult to a head of state is a crime and there must be consequences." (Indeed, the Polish law qualifies it as a crime.)
• Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga said that "such a collection of disgusting remarks is reminiscent of the language of the Stürmer", a Nazi propaganda paper. She added that some dictators, as Saddam Hussein and Alexander Lukashenko were not treated this way. Fotyga then demanded a reaction from the German government, triggering a diplomatic row with Germany that the German press dubbed the "Potato War".^[18]

On their part, German officials have declined to comment or to take any actions on grounds of the freedom of the press, while (according to newspaper reports) privately describing the row as "risible" and "unworthy" of a European Union member state.^[19] The Kaczyński twins were also criticized by their political opponents in Poland, including former president Lech Wałęsa, who called them "men lacking the necessary stature".^[20]

On 2 July 2006 Kaczyński effectively cancelled the Weimar Triangle summit with German Chancellor Merkel and French President Chirac, stating that he had stomach problems.^[21] After Polish and German media speculated that the taz article was the real reason of the cancellation, Kaczyński stated that making a connection to the article was unfair and that the meeting was actually cancelled by his European partners who did not accept the choice of Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz as the Polish representative. ^[22]

[edit] Comments during official visit to the Republic of Ireland

On 20 February 2007, on a state visit to the Republic of Ireland, Kaczynski said that the human race ‘‘would disappear if homosexuality was freely promoted’’. Kaczynski also revealed, during a debate at the Forum on Europe in Dublin, that he was opposed to homosexuality being ‘‘treated as one of several choices’’.^[23] The comments generated scandal in Ireland among the media, the general public and GLBT community. Senator David Norris, a key figure in securing the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ireland in 1993, said the remarks were ‘‘distempered, ignorant, unsophisticated attitudes".^[24] TD Joan Burton, a finance spokesperson with the Irish Labour Party, said the comments were ‘‘a pity’’ given people’s efforts to ‘‘eliminate gross and crass discrimination’’.^[24]

[edit] Gallery

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (Polish)/(English) Official site
• (Polish) [1]
• Strong and Moral State: Lech Kaczynski Speaks on His Presidential Plans
• Lech Kaczynski – The Head of the Capital Ready to Head the State
• The Times: New Polish leader finds demons lurking at home and abroad
• The Economist: Twins together, Poles apart
• Jewish Currents: The Return of the Radical Right in Poland
• (Polish) Fundacja Batorego: Wykład Lecha Kaczyńskiego, 19 September 2005
• (Polish) Wprost: Sylwetka
• BBC profile: [2]
• The Guardian: Polish leader's anti-gay stance threatens EU voting rights - 25 October 2005
• (Polish) WP.pl:About Independence
• Kaczynski Brothers: Movie Stars That Turned Politicians
• President to Welcome Polish President Lech Kaczynski to the White House
• IISS by H.E. Lech Kaczyński, President of the Republic of Poland
• GW:Kaczyński prezydentem
• US Congartulation
• With USA Vc-president
• The Polish President Lech Kaczyński visited the United States (8-11 February 2006).
• Visit in Ukraina
• Raport ws. żołnierzy WSI będzie jawny - Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne
• Lithuanian president in Warsaw
• Poland supports Turkish EU entry
• Poland hopes for complete pullout from Iraq by end 2007

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