The Polish leader is about to join this extraordinary wave of migration next month when he visits Britain, a country he regards fondly as a kindred soul in Europe — in large part, because it is sceptical about federalism.
Before he leaves Warsaw, the President will have to put his political house in order. In the minutes before meeting The Times yesterday, Mr Kaczynski was in counsel with Cabinet ministers over the challenges to the Government. Some commentators expect an election within months, though the timing will also be determined by the Prime Minister — the President’s twin brother Jaroslaw.
Their double act is another sign that the transition of Eastern and Central Europe will not be without bumps and quirks. President Kaczynski wears history heavily on his shoulders, answering many questions with references to Poland’s particularly tortured past. He was uncomfortably reminded of that yesterday when he saw a front-page photograph of a beaming Angela Merkel with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. “They obviously enjoy each other’s company,” observed the Polish President, with a faint smile and a knowing nod in the direction of a brutal history. “That gives me a lot of food for thought, indeed.”
Kaczynski and Kaczynski are regarded as an embarrassment by the mannered metrosexuals of flourishing Warsaw, who characterise the President as a provincial solicitor obsessed by righting the wrongs of past cases that went against him. He is clearly more substantial and more humorous than his reputation allows, but his emphasis on “patriotism” raises questions about the status of those Poles he regards as unpatriotic and about his readiness to see a personal slight as a national insult.
He certainly hasn’t taken offence at the flow of Poles to Britain, and is grateful that full working rights were offered immediately by the Government, unlike neighbouring Berlin. “When we were fighting for Poland’s entry to the European Union, we were also fighting for access to labour markets,” he said. “But I only hope they will return after a few years abroad. I am always telling them that what you are doing is good for Poland, but if you never return it will be a loss.”
The President expects that his talks with Tony Blair will be dominated by EU questions, where he sees Poland and Britain forming a natural alliance against the feared federalism. He says that a senior European politician once told him: “If you carry on in this direction you will be left alone with the British.” He replied that “this is good company” for Poland.
Mr Kaczynski “would like to see a strong Europe that is a union of nation states”. But the draft constitution, rejected by plebiscites in France and the Netherlands, was a “quasifederalist” recipe, he argued. He would prefer guidelines, rather than binding rules, leaving more room for national diversity. “What is in it for us, as Poland?” he asked. “I cannot see any advantage for us.”
He hastened to say that he emphatically regarded the EU as a success. “But it is like tea, which should have some sugar, yet not too much. All the attempts at the moment are to go in the direction of too much sugar.”
The conversation between the President and Mr Blair may well turn to the question of faith and if the Prime Minister does eventually come out as a Roman Catholic then, Mr Kaczynski said, “As a Catholic, I can only rejoice”. He did, however, make clear that Mr Blair’s religion was a matter for private consideration and not public discussion.
There is still not much rejoicing in Poland’s relationship with Germany. It is hard to escape the shadow of history, he said. “You must realise the enormity of the German crime perpetuated on Poland” in the Second World War. “Six million Polish nationals were killed. Half of them were Polish Jews. That is hard to forget. It is fresh in the minds of a generation who may not now be in the best of health, but still have their full senses.”
History “does not drive our current relations with Germany”, he hastened to say. But the pipeline deal that Germany has struck with Russia to bring gas to Germany around the Baltic coast, bypassing Poland, is an open sore. Mr Kaczynski regarded it as not just a corporate deal “but two countries coming together”. He added: “We will do what we can within the framework of law” to protest against it.
Closer to home, his attention is inevitably consumed by the political turmoil that reflects the wider battle for the character of post-communist Poland. For the past fortnight, the coalition led by the Kaczynski twins’ Law and Justice party has been in danger of collapsing, riven by disputes over social spending and by rifts between several rightwing parties.
He suggests that he would like the next parliamentary elections to wait until 2009, but if the coalition cannot glue itself together, they could be as soon as the end of next month. However, most analysts in Warsaw believe that an election is unlikely before next spring. ()
The great task for his party, he believes, is to “safeguard” Poland against “the many pathologies” of its past government, “which must be done away with”. That includes the post-Soviet period when former Communists still had great influence. He saw support for this campaign coming from Poles from the more traditional parts of the country, outside the towns. “The present fight is a fight for the quality of Polish political life. I may be a naive person but I think politics is not to be pursued by cynical people and cowards . . . a decent man should not be branded as a thief and a thief should not be elevated to the status of a decent man.”
The question is whether the brothers’ passionate drive against the corruption and networks of influence of the past will cost Poland some of the reforms necessary to its future success.
The President’s views on homosexuality, when Mayor of Warsaw, have attracted international attention and raised questions about whether social conservatism will be the dominant flavour of Poland’s politics. “I do not believe homosexuals should be discriminated against,” says Mr Kaczynski. “I have people with different sexual orientation in the circle of my private friends,” although “they are not activists”.
However, he added: “I have heard that they (homosexuals)are over-represented in the army.” He is against discrimination on the basis of sexuality in the armed forces too, he said. “But if you had an officer who tried to have an affair with a young conscript (national service), then that would be inadmissable.”
He is “not a doctor, not a sexologist, not an expert” on the causes of homosexuality, he pointed out, but he fears that activists may promote it. “I have 57 years of age behind me, and I have seen men dating girls and then I find that they are of a different orientation.” If the numbers of homosexuals rose, he said, “relations between men and women would be turned upside down” and “mankind would be doomed to extinction”.
However, he said that while a lifelong Catholic, he was not as traditional nor as conservative as his critics maintain.
Population 38.5 million; GDP per capita £7,120; major industries include iron, steel and coal
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