Lech Kaczyński

Lech Aleksander Kaczynski
File:Lechkaszynskiprez.jpg
President of Poland
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 December 2005
Prime Minister	Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz Jaroslaw Kaczynski Donald Tusk
Preceded by	Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Justice Minister of Poland
In office 12 June 2000 – 4 July 2001
President	Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Prime Minister	Jerzy Buzek
Preceded by	Hanna Suchocka
Succeeded by	Stanisław Iwanicki
President of Warsaw
In office 18 November 2002 – 22 December 2005
Preceded by	Wojciech Kozak
Succeeded by	Mirosław Kochalski (acting)
President of the Supreme Chamber of Control of Poland
In office 1992–1995
Preceded by	Walerian Pańko
Succeeded by	Janusz Wojciechowski
Personal details
Born	(1949-06-18) 18 June 1949 Warsaw, Poland
Political party	None Law and Justice (2001-2006)
Spouse	Maria Kaczyńska
Profession	Lawyer

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

Personal life

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 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. 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.

Kaczyński 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.

Marriage and family

He is married to Maria Kaczyńska, born 1943, and has one daughter, Marta (born 1980).

Opposition to Communism

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

Kaczyński was elected a senator in elections of June 1989, and became the vice-chairman of Solidarity trade union NSZZ Solidarność. In the 1991 parliamentary election, 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 the latter was elected as 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's government. That event marks the beginning of a long conflict between Wałęsa and the Kaczyński brothers. According to Wałęsa, who recently criticized the Kaczyński brothers, a reason was that "His approach is to first destroy and then think about what to build".

Lech Kaczyński was the President of the Supreme Chamber of Control (Najwyższa Izba Kontroli, NIK) from February 1992 to May 1995 and later Minister of Justice and Attorney General in Jerzy Buzek's government from June 2000 until his dismissal in July 2001. During 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

In 2002, Kaczyński became the mayor of Warsaw. As mayor, he supported the construction of the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising. During his election campaign he famously said "Spieprzaj dziadu!" ("Piss off, old man!") to a man heckling him on the street. This has now become one of the most famous sayings in modern Poland.

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". 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."

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."

President Lech Kaczyński during military parade in Polish Army Day 15 August 2007 in Warsaw

Presidency

Presidential elections

On 19 March 2005, he formally declared his intention to run for president in the October 2005 election. During his election campaign, he pledged that should he win, his brother Jaroslaw would not become Prime Minister. Lech won and Jaroslaw became Prime Minister in summer 2006.

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

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.

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.

Low popularity

As of February 2008 approval rating for President Kaczyński is low - 29%. The same survey showed that the approval of the opposition-controlled legislature was at 39%, a fact omitted by the opposition-leaning Gazeta Wyborcza.

As of June 2008, according to polls, 73% of voters don't want Kaczyński to seek re-election in 2010. Only 35% approve his foreign policy (with 59% dissapprove). Also 35% aporove his domestic policy, while 62 do not.

Foreign affairs

President and Mrs. Kaczyńska (center, left) with former United States First Lady Nancy Reagan (center, in tan suit) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library 17 July 2007, as Mrs. Reagan prepares to accept the Order of the White Eagle from the President on behalf of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan

Mikheil Saak’ashvili, Lech Kaczyński and Valdas Adamkus in Tbilisi November 2007

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 the 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.

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.

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

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. 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) and Alexander Lukashenko, as well as German politicians such as Ulla Schmidt and Sigmar Gabriel. 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.

The Polish government soon expressed its strong disapproval:

• Lech Kaczyński called the article "disgusting and mean" and on 21 July 2006, he said that he knew of no comparable attacks against politicians and their families.
• 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".

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. 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".

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. 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.

Opposing homosexuality

On 20 February 2007, on a state visit to Ireland, Kaczyński said that the human race ‘‘would disappear if homosexuality was freely promoted’’. Kaczyński 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’’. The comments generated scandal in Ireland among some media, and LGBT 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". 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’’.

On 19 March 2008 President Lech Kaczynski broadcast a video of American couple Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton at their wedding on Poland's national television to illustrate a presidential address he was giving warning the nation that supporting the Lisbon Treaty, which is linked to the EU Charter of Human Rights, would mean that same-sex marriage could come to Poland.

Agence France Presse reported that Fay expressed outrage that video of his wedding, which took place in Canada, was being used in such a manner (even though Fay invited numerous journalists and the wedding thus became a public ceremony).

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk response to President Kaczyński actions: "To scare Poles by saying that homosexuals and Germans pose a threat to the EU is stupid, indecent, contrary to our fundamental interests and very damaging to Poland's image abroad."

Gallery

• 
  Lech Kaczyński
• 
  Lech Kaczyński
• 
  Jarosław Kaczyński (left), Lech Kaczyński (middle) and Pope Benedict XVI
• 
  Halemba coal mine briefing 2006-11-22
• 
  With Vaclav Klaus
• With Ahmet Sezer
  With Ahmet Sezer
• With Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
  With Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
• 
  Lech Kaczyński in Brussels
• 
  With scarf
• 
  2007 World Men's Handball Championship 2007-02-04
• 
  With his wife Maria

External links

• Template:Pl icon/Template:En icon Official site
• Template:Pl icon [2]
• 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
• Template:Pl icon Fundacja Batorego: Wykład Lecha Kaczyńskiego, 19 September 2005
• Template:Pl icon Wprost: Sylwetka
• BBC profile: [3]
• The Guardian: Polish leader's anti-gay stance threatens EU voting rights - 25 October 2005
• Template:Pl icon 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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