Poland’s Kaczynski Twins

Poland’s Kaczynski Twins

 Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski are identical Polish twin brothers and lawyers who founded the conservative Law and Justice Party in Poland in 2001, as an offshoot of the original Solidarity Party.  The twins share a surname, but are not related to infamous American serial “unabomber”, Ted Kaczynski.

 Lech Kaczynski was president of Poland, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski was Prime Minister in 2006-2007. The brothers were the first pair of brothers in the world to serve as president and Prime Minister of a country and the only twin brothers to do so.

 Lech Kaczynski was still President of Poland in April of 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M plane that was carrying him, his wife, and other members of a Polish delegation to commemorate the Katyn massacre, crashed while approaching Smolensk Air Base in Russia. Lech Kaczynski was one of 96 people killed in the crash, which included many of Poland's highest military and civilian leaders.

 The remaining twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski continues to lead the ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party.  In 2020, Kaczyński became deputy prime minister in the Mateusz Morawiecki government.  Kaczyński stated in mid-October 2021 that he will step down as the deputy prime minister at the beginning of 2022 in order to focus on his leadership of his party.

  

Law and Justice (PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. It is a member of the Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists Party at European Union level.  With 198 seats in the Polish Sejm and 48 in the Senate, PiS is currently the largest political party in the Polish parliament, and the dominant party of the United Right ruling coalition.  The current twenty-five PiS MEPs sit in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.

 The law and Justice Party is authoritarian, pro-Catholic Church, anti-abortion, anti-gay, and fiscally conservative.  In a fragmented European political environment, PiS won the 2015 parliamentary election with an outright majority—something no Polish party had done since the fall of communism.  Much of the party’s support comes from the “common man”, particularly in the southeast of Poland, forgotten by the left-wing politicians of the EU. 

 Due to political changes brought about by PiS, Poland has been termed an "illiberal democracy", "plebiscitarian authoritarianism", or "velvet dictatorship with a façade of democracy".  Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s politics have been caricatured as "Kaczyzm".

 Ray Gruszecki

November 22, 2021