A Double Act Takes Center Stage in Poland

President Lech Kaczynski, left, was widely assumed to be running Poland with his twin, Jaroslaw, now prime minister. They rarely decided anything without talking.
President Lech Kaczynski, left, was widely assumed to be running Poland with his twin, Jaroslaw, now prime minister. They rarely decided anything without talking. (By Czarek Sokolowski -- Associated Press)
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 9, 2006

BERLIN, July 8 -- Ever since their party scored big in Poland's elections last fall, the Kaczynski brothers -- identical twin movie stars with equally big political ambitions -- were widely assumed to be running the country in tandem behind the scenes. Now, it's official.

On Saturday, Poland's governing Law and Justice Party voted to name its party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country's new prime minister. With his brother, Lech, already holding the Polish presidency, there is no longer any doubt that the 57-year-old, chubby-faced twins are in charge of the eastern European country.

"There is a certain risk for the president and prime minister to be brothers," Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a news conference in Warsaw after he accepted his party's nomination for the top job in Parliament. "But for various reasons, we came to the conclusion that, at this time, putting forward a different candidate -- of which we have many good ones -- would be a worse way out than recommending me."

Jaroslaw Kaczynski replaces Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, who unexpectedly announced his resignation on Friday. Marcinkiewicz said he was giving up the prime minister's post so he could run for mayor of Warsaw in November. He insisted that the Kaczynskis, who had put him in the job last year, did not maneuver him out the door.

Many Poles were skeptical of the official explanation, given the fact that Marcinkiewicz had among the highest approval ratings of any politician in Poland. The Kaczynskis' political enemies, of whom there are many, warned that the brothers wouldn't be satisfied until they were able to vanquish all their rivals.

"Poles are right to fear the concentration of power in the four hands of two brothers," said Donald Tusk, leader of the opposition Civic Platform party and the loser to Lech Kaczynski in last October's presidential race.

The Kaczynskis have been famous in Poland since the 1962, when as child actors they starred in a hit movie, "Those Two Who Would Steal the Moon." As adults, they resisted communist rule and joined the leadership of the Solidarity trade union movement.

Even today, they are difficult to tell apart. Lech is distinguished by two extra moles on his face; Jaroslaw is known as the unmarried brother who lives with their mother.

They entered democratic politics after the fall of the Iron Curtain but enjoyed limited success, gaining reputations as uncompromising scrappers on the fringe of national politics. In 1993, based on a reader survey, a Polish publication declared Jaroslaw Kaczynski the country's "biggest political loony." The runner-up in the rankings? His twin.

Their fortunes changed last September when voters tossed out a government dominated by former communists and gave a plurality in parliamentary elections to Law and Justice, which vowed to stamp out corruption.

As party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski had dibs on the prime ministership. But he promised voters he would not take the job if his brother won the upcoming presidential race, saying he realized Poles would be uncomfortable at the prospect of being ruled by twins whom they could barely tell apart.

The pledge, however, sounded as if it was made grudgingly. "My brother said that if I win, he won't serve as prime minister," Lech Kaczynski said with a grin in an interview with The Washington Post last September. "I think that would be a limitation of our civil rights."

Lech Kaczynski won the presidency a month later after a hard-fought contest. Afterward, the brothers made good on their promise at first by naming Marcinkiewicz as prime minister. But they did little to dispel the perception that they were controlling the government behind the scenes, speaking by phone several times a day and rarely making decisions without consulting each other.

Since then, they've displayed an eagerness for bare-knuckled politics, taking a hard line against former communists, gays, Russia, Germany and the European Union. They also kept the government in turmoil by waiting months to form a ruling coalition in Parliament.

On Saturday, Jaroslaw Kaczynski tried to reassure voters that the official change at the top would not lead to more political instability.

"In a formal sense, we will have a new government," he said. "I repeat formal sense, because in a practical way, this is going to be a continuation government."


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