DAMIAN A. ZACZEK

As you will probably know, complete power in Poland is in the hands of a pair of twin brothers. They are called the Kaczyńskis. Lech is the president of Poland, and Jarosław the prime minister. They both hold right-wing conservative views. Both of them played a large part in creating the labour and social movement “Solidarność”, which helped to topple communism. Both brothers once closely cooperated with Lech Wałęsa, the legendary leader of Solidarność and later, president of Poland. However many years ago, they parted and went down their separate paths so successfully, that today they avoid each other’s company at state events at which, in fact, they should all be present.

A recent example: the 31^st of August was the 26^th anniversary of the signing of the August agreements between Solidarność, and the communist authorities. The Gdańsk commemorations, attended by Lech Wałęsa, took place at 12 noon. Wałęsa was accompanied by Donald Tusk, the leader of the largest opposition party, the Civic Platform. One hour later, President Kaczyński arrived at the same place.

The Kaczyński brothers have announced the creation of the 4th Republic. However, it looks like they are currently at the stage of completely dismantling and destroying the structures set up after the fall of communism. That period, a time marked by such names as Lech Wałęsa, finance minister Leszek Balcerowicz and foreign minister Władysław Bartoszewski, is described as the 3^rd Republic. The Kaczyński brothers are now determinedly cutting themselves off from this recent history.

The Kaczyński brothers have enthusiastically started breaking down all the old structures by replacing many officials. But it has quickly transpired that the brothers’ party – Law and Justice (PiS) – has a dramatic lack of competent people. Stories abound of mistaken nominations to ministerial positions, to boards of state-owned companies, and to public institutions. The press reveals almost daily new embarrassing facts from the CVs of PiS’s newly nominated decision makers.

Today, one can visibly see how the parliamentary election victory completely surprised the Kaczyński brothers, the leaders of PiS. The truth is that PiS was not ready for government. According to all the opinion polls before the election, it was the Civic Platform (PO) which was to win by a small margin and was to co-opt PiS in order to assemble a majority in parliament and to be able to form a government. This scenario was acceptable even to the brothers.

Reality turned out to be unforeseeable. PiS won but not so decisively that it was able to form a government alone. After many negotiations, the Civic Platform decided not to join PiS in a coalition. At the same time, Lech Kaczyński won the presidential election. Here, again, the opposite was expected: it was Donald Tusk, the leader of PO, who was certain of victory. So, this was a second defeat for the PO.

To avoid a paralysis in government at the very start of its functioning, PiS’s leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, took a decision which was unexpected and widely criticised: he invited two parties into a coalition, Andrzej Lepper’s Self-Defence (Samoobrona) party and the nationalist-conservative League of Polish Families (LPR) of Roman Giertych. In Poland, this coalition has quite a significant amount of support in society, however the country’s image abroad has suffered.