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Lech Kaczyński

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Lech Aleksander Kaczyński
File:Lechkaszynskiprez.JPG
President of Poland
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 23, 2005
Preceded byAleksander Kwaśniewski
Personal details
BornJune 18, 1949
Warsaw, Poland
Political partynonpartisan (Law and Justice at the time of election)
SpouseMaria Kaczyńska
ProfessionLawyer
Politics of Poland
Government
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
Elections
Political parties
Administrative divisions
Foreign relations
Related topics

Lech Aleksander Kaczyńskiⓘ, (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.

Family

He is the identical twin brother of the Prime Minister of Poland, Jarosław Kaczyński. He is married to Maria Kaczyńska and has one daughter, Marta (born 1980).

Early life

File:TheTwoWhoStoleTheMoon.jpg
The Kaczyński twins first rose to public prominence as child actors in the 1962 film The Two Who Stole the Moon. Lech is on the right.

The Kaczyński twins are 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 and Jarosław were born in Warsaw. 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 1976 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.

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.

Porozumienie Centrum

File:1989 jaroslaw e lech kaczynski.jpg
Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński in 1989

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 1993, 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". [1]

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.

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.

President of Warsaw

Since 2002, Kaczyński was 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" [2]. 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 unconsitutional and he has been repeatedly criticised by the Mazowieckie voivodeship administration, which officially supervises the Mayor of Warsaw. In 2005, he allowed a homophobic, far-right counter-demonstration, the "Parade of Normality." [3]

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." (see [2]).

During his tenure as mayor, Warsaw became a safer city and he is still popular in the capital.

Presidency

Presidental elections

File:Kaczynski konferencja PiS taken by nicaan.jpeg
PiS convention

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

In the first round of the presidential elections on October 9, 2005, Donald Tusk of the center-right Citizens' Platform (PO) won 36.33% of the vote while Kaczyński gained 33.1%. The ballot was therefore inconclusive, as neither candidate won the required 50% plus one vote.

In the presidential run-off on October 23, 2005 Kaczyński won 8,257,468 votes, (54.04% of the votes cast) whereas Tusk, won 7,022,319 votes (45.96%). In the election 30,279,209 Poles were eligible to vote, 15,439,684 voters took part in the election, which means the voter turnout was at 50.99%. The number of invalid votes was 159,897.

Lech Kaczyński received official notification of his victory at 2:12 p.m. on October 24.

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.[4]

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.

Despite Jaroslaw being outed in the Polish media in October 2006 [5], the Kaczyński twins and their supporters keep a strong anti-homosexual rethoric. [6]


Lech Kaczyński

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 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 Germany. Outside those issues the main tasks would be developing a visible shape of strategic partnership with Ukraine and greater cooperation with Baltic states.

Kaczyński told reporters he would visit the United States in early 2006. After a brief telephone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush, Kaczyński said he would strengthen Poland's ties with the United States. In a television interview he confirmed that under certain conditions, Polish troops could continue their stabilization mission in Iraq beyond the current timetable.

Taz article controversy

On 26 June 2006, the German left-wing newspaper die tageszeitung (taz) published a satirical article about Lech Kaczyński, entitled Poland's new potato.[7] The writing formed part of a series of satirical characterisations of politicians titled Villains who want to rule the world. Previous subjects of the series included, among others, the dictators Saddam Hussein (before being toppled in 2003)[8] and Alexander Lukashenko[9], as well as German politicians such as Ulla Schmidt[10] and Sigmar Gabriel.[11] 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.[12]

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.[13]
  • 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".[14]

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.[15] 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".[16]

On 2 July 2006 Kaczyński cancelled the Weimar Triangle summit with German Chancellor Merkel and French President Chirac, stating that he had stomach problems.[17] 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. [18]

On 12 July 2006 Angela Merkel and Jarosław Kaczyński, the new Polish Prime Minister, declared a close German-Polish co-operation. [19]

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Lech Kaczyński.
  1. ^ "NYT editorial".
    "Der Spiegel artikel (German)".
    "Wałęsa interview (Polish)".
  2. ^ "BBC News: Gay marchers ignore ban in Warsaw".
  3. ^ "Radio Polonia: Anti-gay demonstration in Warsaw". {{cite web}}: horizontal tab character in |title= at position 17 (help)
  4. ^ "Speech of the president-elect on his official webpage".
  5. ^ "Poland's Anti-Gay Premier Outed". gaycitynews.com. 2006-10-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "New Anti-Gay Regime in Poland". Thy Gully. 2005-11-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Template:De icon Peter Köhler (June 20, 2006). "Polens neue Kartoffel". die tageszeitung. p. 20.
    Template:Pl icon Peter Köhler. "Młody polski kartofel (Nowy kartofel w Polsce)". Retrieved 2006-07-16.
  8. ^ Template:De icon Peter Köhler (February 2, 2003). "Er wollte Balletttänzer werden". die tageszeitung. p. 32.
  9. ^ Template:De icon Peter Köhler (November 24, 2004). "Das Monster von Minsk". die tageszeitung. p. 20.
  10. ^ Template:De icon Peter Köhler (March 15, 2004). "Frau Doktor Honigkuchenpferd". die tageszeitung. p. 20.
  11. ^ Template:De icon Peter Köhler (January 21, 2003). "Der König der Kartoffeln". die tageszeitung. p. 20.
  12. ^ Author's translation.
  13. ^ Template:De icon "Polnische Staatsanwaltschaft ermittelt gegen "taz"". Spiegel Online. July 21, 2006.
  14. ^ Template:De icon "Viel Lärm um wenig". Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
  15. ^ Tony Paterson (July 16, 2006). "Germany in hot water after labelling Polish leader a 'potato'". The Daily Telegraph.
  16. ^ Template:De icon "Walesa attackiert Kaczynski-Brüder". Spiegel Online.
  17. ^ David Crossland (July 11, 2006). "Poland's Hypersensitive Twins". Spiegel Online.
  18. ^ Template:Pl icon "Możemy przegrać bitwę o Polskę". Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  19. ^ "Merkel und Kaczynski wollen eng zusammenarbeiten". Spiegel Online.

See also

Preceded by President of Poland
2005–present 		Succeeded by
incumbent

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