POLAND:Ahead of his state visit to Ireland, beginning on Sunday, Poland's president spoke to Derek Scally
President Lech Kaczynski of Poland has warned that it is not Euro-sceptics who pose the greatest danger to the European project but over-zealous integrationists anxious to impose an unrealistic constitutional treaty on unwilling European citizens.
Mr Kaczynski arrives in Ireland on Sunday for a three-day state visit to meet members of Ireland's growing Polish community and to discuss with the Government a Polish plan to be presented next month to revive and revise the European constitutional treaty.
"I believe the EU is an immense success story, also for Poland even if membership is not yet three years old," said Mr Kaczynski in an interview with The Irish Times. "But I'm afraid that we may slightly overdo the European project which will result in effects quite different from what was initially intended. This overdoing may be a real threat for the EU and may lead to a situation where the integration process will transform itself into a disintegration process."
Mr Kaczynski and his twin brother, Jaroslaw, founded Poland's ruling national conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) in 2001. Four years later, the brothers completed an unprecedented double electoral victory, with Lech winning the presidential election and Jaroslaw now prime minister of the three-way coalition government.
Since taking office, the former Solidarity activists have turned Polish politics upside down. They have cleared out the upper rungs of the political establishment, launched investigations into suspected corrupt privatisation deals in the 1990s and begun vetting public figures for communist collaboration.
However, they have toned down the Euro-scepticism of their opposition days, even if President Kaczynski remains critical of the stalled constitutional treaty. "We are not against a treaty as such but we would like to make it more realistic," he said. "If we want it to be more realistic, we must recognise the obvious fact that Europe is composed of countries with traditions, histories and languages. The nation state has not yet exhausted its abilities and tasks."
Next month, President Kaczynski has promised to present a constitutional initiative more "palatable" to European governments and voters.
"The spirit [ of the plan] is that we are in favour of a closely knit, strong union of states and a system of EU institutions seen as the institutionalised co-operation framework between those states," he said.
He admits that Poland's last initiative, a pre-Christmas call for a EU army, "met with resounding silence", apart from a firm Irish No.
As a result, Poland "is not going to revisit a subject that is unrealistic or unpalatable", even if it believes the EU cannot become an international player without one.
The Kaczynski brothers have been shaped from birth by the second World War, which President Kaczynski calls an "indelible memory". He was born 45 minutes after Jaroslaw in Warsaw as the city raised itself from almost complete destruction wrought by retreating Nazi occupiers.
"I was born four years after the second World War but I cannot remember a period of my life when I didn't realise there was a war," he said. "If I remember anything from my childhood, it is that the war, a very cruel war, belonged to our conscience." The Kaczynskis' parents were Polish resistance fighters and told the twins bedtime stories of the doomed Warsaw uprising. Their mother was a dominant influence, while the primary concern of their emotionally distant father was their health: he sent them constantly to doctors even when they weren't sick.
The brothers shot to fame in the 1960s, starring in the classic Polish film About the Two Who Would Steal the Moon and later studied law at Warsaw University. They became involved in the underground opposition movement which led to President Kaczynski being interned. Following the transition to democracy, the brothers worked as advisers to Solidarity leader-turned-president Lech Walesa but an acrimonious split followed.
In 2002, Mr Kaczynski became mayor of Warsaw but attracted unfavourable international headlines for his anti-gay remarks and refusal to permit gay pride parades in the city. In a recently published book, he said his values were in line with those of Pope Benedict: "This kind of Catholicism suits me. It is about opposing the world where a Christmas tree is becoming suspicious and the most obscene gay demonstration is not."
Since taking office in 2005, the brothers have vowed to revisit what they see as Poland's flawed decision of 1989 to draw a "thick line" between the past and the present. The Kaczynskis say accepting a negotiated democratic handover rather than a clean break created a post-communist republic poisoned by corruption and croneyism.
This lustration policy has gathered momentum with increasingly frenetic revelations culminating in last month's resignation of Stanislaw Wielgus as archbishop of Warsaw at his own inaugural Mass.
More revelations about clergy collaboration are likely in the coming weeks, but Mr Kaczynski doesn't believe the Catholic Church in Poland faces a moral crisis of credibility. He sees lustration as painful and belated, but necessary. "There is no joy in this for me," he said, rejecting critics' claims that lustration is a witch-hunt to punish communists and smear the brothers' political enemies.
"Active party participation in the previous system made people better disposed to reap the rewards of the free market economy and, in my view, this is not really moral. But these are very complex problems, far from black-and-white in perception, but they have to be resolved now as a matter of public hygiene."
Since taking office, it has become increasingly clear that, although nearly identical in appearance, President Kaczynski is not his brother. He himself admits that Jaroslaw is the political strategist. The president's tone is more moderate, his style less confrontational and manner more affable.
The president is dismissive of the concern of critics and European partners that cleaning house at home has distracted the government from foreign policy apart from rows with Germany and Russia.
The government has been at odds with Berlin over potential claims on Polish property from displaced Germans. Also, a new German-Russian undersea gas pipeline will diminish Poland's role as a transit country and, Warsaw fears, leave it more vulnerable to Moscow pressure.
However, it is Ireland's growing Polish community, not international affairs, that is the focus of Mr Kaczynski's visit. He is confident that continued strong economic performance, rising wages and slowly falling unemployment will attract Poles home within five years. "While we thank you for your hospitality, I do hope that this is a transition period."
Long before this wave of migration, Mr Kaczynski says he was interested in Ireland's tradition of independence fighting and neutrality in the second World War. "But until I was 40, I was not able to travel - as members of the opposition could not travel the world," he said. "I'm looking forward to seeing Ireland now."