End of the era of twins

Lech Kaczynski was unable to congratulate the winner

Yesterday evening, Polish President Lech Kaczynski completed consultations with the leaders of the parties that entered parliament following the results of the early elections on October 21 . The topic of conversation was the appointment of a new prime minister. The old government led by 58-year-old Jaroslaw Kaczynski resigned on November 5 but will remain in place until a new cabinet is formed.

For the past two weeks, the president has not said a word about the elections, which were defeated by the conservative Law and Justice party , led by his twin brother Yaroslav. All this time, Lech Kaczynski did not appear in public. The day before yesterday he arrived at the inaugural meeting of the Sejm of the new convocation, but even there he remained silent. This is the first time this has happened in the lower house of the Polish parliament over the past 16 years - according to tradition, the head of state assessed the situation created after the elections and gave instructions to the deputies. The floor had to be taken by the new Marshal of the Sejm, Bronislaw Komorowski, one of the leaders of the liberal “Civic Platform” (CP) that won the elections.

Lech Kaczynski began to speak only at a meeting of the Senate, which was 60% staffed by representatives of the victorious liberals. The President stood up for the upper house, since the leaders of the State party spoke in favor of its liquidation. The president tried to reduce his silence in the Sejm to a joke: “Then Prime Minister Kaczynski would speak, but he is very similar to me.” However, it seemed to most Poles that the president simply could not squeeze out congratulations to the victorious SOE and its leader, 50-year-old Donald Tusk .

At the end of October, a week after the elections, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski made it clear that his brother-president was offended by the insults inflicted on him during the election campaign and was waiting for an apology. Donald Tusk immediately apologized for the sake of maintaining business relations with the head of state. The presidential palace took note of this, but many Poles perceived what was happening as a farce. A page appeared on the Internet with a malicious call for a nationwide apology to Lech Kaczynski: “Everyone who has even a little heart sees how our president is suffering. Apologize! The fate of your country depends on it.” In two days, more than seven thousand apologies were received - young people with obvious irony repented for going to the polls and voting for Tusk.

It remains unclear whether Tusk received congratulations on his victory from the president. Yesterday, after completing a meeting with the president, the leader of the GP said that he would first convey the information received from Lech Kaczynski to the party leaders. It is known that the conversation concerned foreign policy issues: European cooperation and the deployment of elements of the American missile defense system (ABM) on Polish territory. Tusk said that the future government “does not have a rigid doctrine” regarding missile defense; it is ready to listen to all arguments and make a decision based on common sense: “If we come to the conclusion that the missile defense base increases the level of security for Poland, then we will be open to negotiations. If we come to the conclusion, together with our partners, including in the EU and NATO, that the project is controversial, then we will think about it further.”

The question of the candidate for the post of Foreign Minister, 44-year-old Radoslaw Sikorski, who headed the Ministry of Defense until February, became a painful one. Prime Minister Kaczynski dismissed him, after which Sikorski joined the liberals. Then Kaczynski’s party threw out a tub of incriminating evidence on Sikorski, accusing him of party treason (although he was not a party member) and all mortal sins, including suspicions of working for British intelligence. There was no evidence.

Now Lech Kaczynski has stated that this candidacy will not contribute to the president’s cooperation with the government and he has something to tell about Sikorski. But this information is a state secret and will be provided to Tusk privately. But yesterday, journalists got Tusk to admit that he had not heard anything from the president that could compromise Sikorski and prevent his appointment as head of Polish diplomacy. For Russia, this will mean that in Sikorsky it will receive a difficult partner, clearly pro-Western.

Donald Tusk assures that the composition of the new cabinet of ministers, which will be formed by the liberals in a coalition with the Polish Peasant Party, is already ready. The list will be made public after Tusk's appointment as prime minister, which he expects on Thursday or Friday. Tusk said that as prime minister, on his first foreign visit, he plans to visit Brussels, Paris and Berlin within one day. He recently flew to London to thank the Polish community, which numbers more than a million people in the UK, for its active participation in the elections and support. There he once again criticized the “ineffective, capricious and emotional” foreign policy of the Kaczynski brothers. Tusk noted that he considers himself a “pro-American politician,” but does not perceive Washington as a “big brother.” The future prime minister names the end of the Polish military's stay in Iraq as summer-autumn 2008.

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