Despite his hardline views, Lech Kaczynski was no conservative caricature, writes DEREK SCALLY
FOR ANYONE who knew Lech Kaczynski from his memorable public utterances, meeting him was a pleasant surprise.
The conservative Polish president is best remembered in Ireland as the man who torpedoed an otherwise flawless State visit here in 2007 by claiming that promoting homosexuality would lead to the extinction of the human race.
His words seemed in keeping for a man who, as mayor of Warsaw, had banned a gay pride parade two years earlier. Despite his hardline, and for some people unacceptable, views, Lech Kaczynski was no conservative caricature, however.
In person, he was a warm and friendly man whose regular provocations seemed to be about demanding the same respect for his conservative views that his liberal opponents demanded for theirs. "It's about opposing a world where a Christmas tree is becoming suspicious, and the most obscene gay demonstration is not," he said, summarising his views to The Irish Timesin 2007.
Although his views were controversial – staunchly pro-American and pro-death penalty, suspicious of Germany and anti-Russian – they were in tune with the millions of Poles who voted him into office in 2005, months after his twin brother Jaroslaw became prime minister.
Although stubborn, Lech Kaczynski was by far the softer of the twins, and Jaroslaw, older by 45 minutes, was the political brains behind their national conservative Law and Justice party.
It was a long road for the former child stars of the classic Polish film The Two Who Stole the Moonto the portly brothers dubbed the "terrible twins" of European politics.
In the end, few western pundits got beyond the caricature to try to understand the motivations and traumas of the Polish president.
“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,” Kaczynski told this newspaper.
After a childhood in the ruins of Warsaw, listening to their parents’ resistance stories with black and white heroes and villains, it was natural for the twins to be drawn to the growing Solidarity movement that would eventually topple communism.
Interned for 10 months in 1981, and a close confidant of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, Lech Kaczynski eventually split acrimoniously with Walesa over how they viewed Poland’s negotiated transition to democracy in 1989.
For Walesa, a transitional process was a necessary evil; for Kaczynski, failure to make a clean break left Poland soaked in corruption and cronyism.
The brothers viewed their 2005 double win as carte blanche to draw a “thick line” between Poland’s past and the present; they ignored the complexities of life, of Polish history and of the human character.
Success in fighting corruption at home – with sometimes questionable legal methods – was eventually overshadowed by endless upsets with EU neighbours.
Mortified Poles ousted Jaroslaw in 2007, and his brother’s chances at a second presidential term this year were looking dim.
“Lech Kaczynski didn’t follow the modern rules of politics,” said Ryszard Bugaj, a close confidant. “He didn’t sell himself, he just said what he thought.”