Jarosław Kaczyński

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Jarosław Kaczyński

Ph.D.
Jarosław Kaczyński Sejm 2016a.JPG
Jarosław Kaczyński in 2016
Leader of Law and Justice
Assumed office
18 January 2003
Preceded byLech Kaczyński
Prime Minister of Poland
In office
14 July 2006 – 16 November 2007
PresidentLech Kaczyński
DeputyLudwik Dorn
Zyta Gilowska
Przemysław Gosiewski
Andrzej Lepper
Roman Giertych
Preceded byKazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Succeeded byDonald Tusk
Chief of the Chancellery of the President
In office
22 December 1990 – 31 October 1991
PresidentLech Wałęsa
Preceded byMichał Janiszewski
Succeeded byJanusz Ziółkowski
Personal details
Born
Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński

(1949-06-18) 18 June 1949 (age 70)
Warsaw, Poland
Political partyLaw and Justice (2001–present)
Other political
affiliations		Solidarity (before 1991)
Centre Agreement (1991–1997)
Solidarity Electoral Action (1997–2001)
Alma materUniversity of Warsaw (PhD)
ProfessionLawyer
AwardsSt. George's Order of Victory
Signature

Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (Polish pronunciation: [jaˈrɔswaf kaˈtʂɨj̃skʲi] (About this soundlisten); born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician and lawyer, and the current leader of the Law and Justice party (PiS by its Polish acronym), which he co-founded in 2001 with his identical twin brother, the late Polish President Lech Kaczyński.[1][2] Running for PiS, he served as Prime Minister of Poland from July 2006 to November 2007, while his brother was President of Poland. After PiS's electoral defeat in 2007, Kaczyński was the main leader of the opposition to Civic Platform's governments.

Following the death of his brother in a plane crash, Jarosław Kaczyński ran against acting President Bronisław Komorowski in the Polish presidential election on 20 June 2010,[3][4][5] but lost.

Despite not being the PiS candidate for either President or Prime Minister, Kaczyński is widely considered a large influence behind the PiS victories in both the 2015 presidential and 2015 parliamentary elections. Even though he does not serve as either prime minister or president, and is formally just a member of the Sejm, he is considered one of the most influential men in Poland, as well as an influential leader in the European Union.[6]

Personal life[edit]

Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński with their mother.

Kaczyński is the identical twin brother of the late Polish President Lech Kaczyński. Jarosław and Lech were born in Warsaw.[7]

The Kaczyński brothers are 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).

As children, Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński starred in the 1962 Polish film The Two Who Stole the Moon (Polish: O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc), based on a popular children's story by Kornel Makuszyński.[8]

Kaczyński resides in Warsaw, he has never married, but there were rumours about a close love relationship with one of his unmarried employees, MP Jolanta Szczypińska, before her death in 2018.[9][10] He lived with his ailing mother until her hospitalization.[3] Kaczyński owns no computer and is said to have opened his first bank account only in 2009.[6]

Among many political elites in Poland, including Lech Walęsa, rumours have circulated for years that he is homosexual, apparently confirmed by secret service reports.[11] In 2006, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on communist-era secret service files which documented a discussion on his sexuality. In the files, a former SB (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) officer speculated on Kaczyński's sexual orientation.[12] Relations between Lech Wałęsa and Kaczyński have for many years been strained drawing from their opposite stances regarding Poland's communist past: Wałęsa preferred to focus on the future and "allow the past to remain the past", while the Kaczyński brothers strived to destroy any remnant of the country's former communist networks.[13]

Early career[edit]

Kaczyński was a graduate of law and administration of Warsaw University, which in 1976 awarded him a PhD in Law, he was the executive editor of the Tygodnik Solidarność weekly from 1989 to 1991.

In 1991, he created the centrist, Christian democratic Centre Agreement party and later became its chairman, remaining in the role until 1998. In the years 1991 to 1993 and 1997 to 2005, Kaczyński was a member of the Polish Parliament (Sejm).[14]

In 1991, he worked under direction of President Lech Wałęsa as the head of his presidential chancellery.[15]

President Wałęsa fired Kaczyński, who then led the movement against Wałęsa. During this time an effigy of Wałęsa was burned at a protest organized by Kaczyński.[16]

2005 elections[edit]

Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński with Pope Benedict XVI

Kaczyński was the Law and Justice prime ministerial candidate in the September 2005 Polish parliamentary election.[17] However, when the party emerged as winner of the election, he pledged that he would not take the position, expecting that his nomination would reduce the chances of his brother Lech Kaczyński, who was a candidate for the October presidential election. Party-member Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was appointed Prime Minister.

In the succeeding months, he was a frontbench MP and the leader of his party. Many also described Kaczyński as Poland's most influential politician, he was said to have enormous influence on the Prime Minister's decision-making process. Kaczyński was the architect of the coalition with the populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Polish: Samoobrona) and the far-right League of Polish Families party.

Critics accuse the first PiS government of allegedly splitting the country over religious and cultural issues and picking "needless fights with Germany and the European Union".[18][13]

Prime Minister[edit]

Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński with U.S. President George W. Bush

Following reports of a rift between Kaczyński and Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, the latter tendered his resignation on 7 July 2006. Kaczyński was appointed prime minister by his brother, Lech Kaczyński, on 10 July, and sworn in on 14 July, following the formation of a cabinet and a confidence vote in the Sejm.[19][20][21]

At the request of his government, Parliament lowered PIT and rent tax. Kaczyński controversially initiated a nationwide program (lustracja) which required thousands of public employees, teachers, and journalists to formally declare whether or not they had collaborated with the security services of the former communist regime.[22] Kaczyński's government was criticized both at home and abroad for poor foreign relationships with Germany and Russia.[23]

2007 parliamentary election[edit]

Despite gaining votes, Law and Justice lost the parliamentary election on 21 October 2007, finishing a distant second behind pro-European Christian-democratic and conservative liberal Civic Platform. Kaczyński was succeeded as prime minister by Donald Tusk (after which Kaczyński remained chairman of Law and Justice, becoming leader of the opposition).

2010 presidential election[edit]

Jarosław Kaczyński during XIII Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój (2013)

Following the death of his brother, Lech Kaczyński, Jarosław announced that he would run for president against Bronisław Komorowski in the presidential elections held on 20 June 2010.[3][24] Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska headed his electoral campaign staff and the spokesperson was Paweł Poncyljusz. Kaczyński appeared to soften his image during the campaign in order to win centrist voters;[25] the campaign's motto was Poland Comes First.[26] He polled 36.46% of the votes in the first round, against acting president Bronisław Komorowski's 41.54%. In the second round his 46.99% of the votes was defeated by Komorowski's winning 53.01%.

Return to power (2015)[edit]

Jarosław Kaczyński and Beata Szydło

In order to win over moderates, rather than running as PiS' candidate for president or prime minister, Kaczyński put forward more moderate PiS members in the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections. Andrzej Duda ran as PiS presidential candidate, while Beata Szydło was its candidate for prime minister;[27] the manoeuvres paid off, as PiS won both elections.[27] In the case of the parliamentary election, PiS became the first party to win an outright majority since the end of Communism,[28][29] but despite being a very popular leader among PiS' most loyal base, he himself remains unpopular for the wider public, with some polls showing that more Poles think Kaczyński is not trustworthy compared to Duda or Szydło.[27]

Currently, despite formally being just one of the 460 MPs in the Polish Parliament's lower house (Sejm), Kaczyński is amongst the most influential politicians in Poland,[6] he is considered the de facto ruler of Poland, from whom President and Prime Minister take orders.[30] On 19 November 2017, President of the European Council Donald Tusk warned that Kaczyński's leadership played into the Kremlin's hands and endangered the independence of Poland.[31]

Political views[edit]

Jarosław Kaczyński speaking during the inauguration of a monument to his brother Lech Kaczyński (November 2018, Warsaw)

Kaczyński's project is said to consist of a "moral revolution" culminating in the creation of a "fourth republic" drawing a radical break from the compromises surrounding the fall of communism in Poland[18] and reverting Poland back to its conservative, Roman Catholic roots and away from a multi-cultural styled Western European mainstream. In April 2016, he stated that he is not going to candidate for office of President or Prime Minister of Republic of Poland in upcoming elections.

Drawing from his strong, uncompromising views (specially regarding parts of the political, cultural and media elite, which he sees as remnants or heirs of the former communist networks), Kaczyński is often labelled as "polarizing".[32]

In recent years, he was also known as an activist for animal rights, and, among other things, undertook activities aimed at banning the breeding of fur animals.[33]

In 2019, Kaczyński characterized the LGBT rights movement as a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation, he also stated that everyone must accept Christianity and questioning the Roman Catholic Church in Poland as unpatriotic: "We are dealing with a direct attack on the family and children — the sexualization of children, that entire LBGT movement, gender. This is imported, but they today actually threaten our identity, our nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state."[34]

In popular culture[edit]

The main character of the political satire web series The Chairman's Ear, chairman Jarosław (depicted by series creator Robert Górski), is modeled on Kaczyński.[35]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Gwiazda, Anna. Democracy in Poland: Representation, Participation, Competition and Accountability Since 1989. Routledge, 2015, p. 63
  2. ^ Poland turns right: A conservative enigma. The Economist, 31 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Champion, Marc (24 April 2010). "Kaczynski Poised for Presidential Bid in Poland". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  4. ^ "Twin to Run for Polish President". BBC News. 26 April 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  5. ^ Kulish, Nicholas (26 April 2010). "Ex-Leader's Twin Declares Run in Poland". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  6. ^ a b c "Jarosław Kaczyński". Politico.eu. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  7. ^ Day, Matthew (27 September 2005). "Twins who stole the Moon are poised to run away with Poland". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
  8. ^ Araloff, Simon (23 September 2005). "Kaczynski Brothers: Movie Stars That Turned Politicians". Axis News. Archived from the original on 27 April 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
  9. ^ Easton, Adam (23 May 2007). "Ryanair faces legal row over ad". BBC News. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  10. ^ "Kaczyński i Szczypińska: znowu miłość?" (in Polish). Deser.pl. 22 January 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  11. ^ Towle, Andy (24 October 2006). "Homophobic Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski Outed as Gay". Towleroad.com.
  12. ^ The Warsaw pact. Times Online. 19 August 2007. Archived 17 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ a b "Poland's Kaczynski Brothers:Seeing Double in Warsaw". Spiegel Online. 20 July 2006. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  14. ^ "Jaroslaw Kaczynski at Encyklopedia Solidarnosci" (in Polish). Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  15. ^ Matraszek, Marek (26 October 1991). "The President's Man". spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  16. ^ Hinshaw, Drew; Walker, Marcus (22 January 2018). "Poland's New Nationalist Rulers Are Erasing Lech Walesa From History". wsj.com. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  17. ^ Easton, Adam (21 September 2006). "Polish twins in leadership race". BBC News. London. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
  18. ^ a b "He's back". The Economist. 12 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  19. ^ "Poland's Prime Minister Resigns". BBC News. London. 7 July 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
  20. ^ "Polish President Appoints His Twin Brother as Premier". Bloomberg. 10 July 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
  21. ^ "Polish Head Swears in Twin as PM". BBC News. 14 July 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
  22. ^ Europress Research (19 April 2010). "Poland Post April 10th 2010". Europress Research. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  23. ^ "A winter honyemoon". The Economist. 19 December 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  24. ^ Präsidentenwahl in Polen: Kaczynski will seinen Bruder beerben (in German). Spiegel Online, 26 April 2010.
  25. ^ "ANALYSIS-Poland's Kaczynski eyes middle ground ahead of vote". Reuters. 11 May 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  26. ^ "Hasło Kaczyńskiego: "Polska jest najważniejsza"". tvn24.pl. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  27. ^ a b c Strzelecki, Marek (18 April 2016). "Staring Down Critics, Poland's Kaczynski Urges Faster Change". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  28. ^ "Poland Ousts Government as Law & Justice Gains Historic Majority". Bloomberg. 25 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  29. ^ "Poland elections: Conservatives secure decisive win". BBC News. 25 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  30. ^ "Poland's de facto leader slams president, wants to restore 'moral order'". Politico. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2018. Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ "Donald Tusk signals return to Polish politics with tweet attack". Financial Times.
  32. ^ Hoppe, Ralf; Puhl, Jan (8 December 2016). "Poland after a Year of Populist Rule". Spiegel Online International. Retrieved 25 September 2017. "The conservative party leader is considered highly intelligent and well educated, but he is also a polarizing figure."
  33. ^ "Kaczyński apeluje z ekranu w Brukseli: niech futra przejdą do historii". tvn24.pl (TVN24). 23 January 2018.
  34. ^ "Polish leader: LGBT rights an import that threatens nation". New York Post. Associated Press. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  35. ^ Florkiewicz, Pawel; Pawlak, Justyna (28 June 2017). "Popular Polish TV satire targets powerful conservative leader Kaczynski". Reuters. Retrieved 28 August 2019.

External links[edit]

Political offices
Preceded by
Michał Janiszewski 		Chief of the Chancellery of the President
1990–1991 		Succeeded by
Janusz Ziółkowski
Preceded by
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz 		Prime Minister of Poland
2006–2007 		Succeeded by
Donald Tusk
Party political offices
Preceded by
Lech Kaczyński 		Leader of Law and Justice
2003–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by
Lech Kaczyński 		Law and Justice nominee for President of Poland
2010 		Succeeded by
Andrzej Duda
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jarosław_Kaczyński&oldid=920253534"