Heartbreak in Warsaw

President Kaczynski undergoes urgent examination

Yesterday, the Kaczynski brothers, who had finally formalized their family contract to govern Poland, were again in the spotlight. While Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who had been appointed Prime Minister the day before, was engaged in personnel shake-ups in the government, the presidential palace gave a report on the health of the head of state.

Yesterday, a message about the “serious illness of the president” appeared on the front page of the large-circulation tabloid “Superexpress.” According to the newspaper, Lech Kaczynski has problems not only with the gastrointestinal tract (which explained the cancellation of a meeting with the leaders of Germany and France in Weimar last week). He has “an extremely dangerous coronary artery disease that can lead to sudden death, heart attack or stroke.” A specialist from a cardiology clinic claims that a patient with such a diagnosis needs a strict regimen, a measured life without stress. Lech Kaczynski, as the newspaper notes, has been ill for a long time, which is confirmed by medical evidence in the president’s personal dossier, located at the Institute of National Remembrance and posted on the Internet.

The publication caused a stir. Lech Kaczynski was urgently examined. At the end of the day, journalists were invited to the presidential palace. Health Minister Zbigniew Religa, a renowned cardiologist, explained to them that “the president does not have any heart disease or coronary artery disease.” According to him, “traces of a peptic ulcer cured in November last year were discovered.” And Superexpress had medical reports made in 1981, when Lech Kaczynski was interned. In conclusion, Minister Religa said that “the president’s health is quite normal.” But this does not mean that he cannot be subject to transitional disease states - such as the one that led to the cancellation of the Weimar Triangle summit.

Valery MASTEROV, staff correspondent for the Moscow News newspaper in Warsaw, for Vremya Novostei