Lech Kaczinski, the “atypical” European has joined the moon

(BRUSSELS2) Intransigent patriot, often flirting on the wave of dubious nationalism, Lech Kaczinski, the Polish president who died in thepresidential plane crash, on April 10, 2010, was a man who had no doubts about his destiny and was not stingy with media stunts or even provocations. His first public appearance, he made it at the age of 12, in a children's film where he played with his twin brother Jaroslaw: "the story of the little ones who got to the moon".

An early anti-communist opponent, jurist, fervent Catholic, he had joined, with his brother Jaroslaw, the "Solidarnosc" trade union. Elected President of the Republic in 2005, he had enamelled European circles with his rough and anti-conformist side, hostile to too much interventionism from Brussels but, at the same time, convinced of a certain European solidarity.

Some souvenirs...

Anti-Russian naturally.

Distrustful, even hostile of its Russian neighbour, it had campaigned against all odds for the signing and then the implementation of an anti-missile shield, clearly intended in its mind to deal with a new threat from the great eastern neighbor (and not to fight against an Iranian threat as the Americans officially defended). While the change of government was taking place across the Atlantic, he had fought against his government, not hesitating to send his own emissaries to try to preserve the original path planned by the Bush administration. Engaged alongside the Georgians, from the first days, he had not hesitated to make a visit to the field. Visit enamelled by an incident, unknown persons having fired on the presidential car (1).

The Battle of Lisbon.

Hostile to excessive community integration, he had led a tough battle with his European colleagues during the negotiation of the Lisbon Treaty. Long discussions had been necessary in June 2007, to reach a compromise. The president did not hesitate to leave Nicolas Sarkozy's office several times (where the discussions were held) to confer with his twin brother, who remained in Warsaw. Kaczinski had not hesitated to claim the adoption of another method of calculating the majority (the square root), by invoking all the possible arguments, in particular the Polish losses during the Second World War. " Without the war, Poland would not have 38 million inhabitants but many more “, he said during a press conference. In Lisbon, again, in October 2007, when finally getting his hands on the treaty, he did not hesitate to claim the right to demand respect for Polish demands: “ We had an agreement in Brussels, we must respect it, it is our right, if our demands are not carried out, we must postpone the discussion”. 

A very personal call for European solidarity.

S'he was not stingy with unkind comments on the Brussels bureaucracy, he also had certain European convictions, in particular on solidarity. A word that came up often in his mouth. In June 2007, precisely when I asked him about the meaning of this word for him, he had defended a strong international commitment of Poland: in peacekeeping missions (in Lebanon, for example), in favor of enlargement to Ukraine, Moldova and the Balkans, but also for the developing countries. " We benefit from European solidarity (through European funding) and we don't want to forget that. We will also be able to express this solidarity in our turn. By participating in EU actions in other countries: in Africa, in Asia. The current Polish contribution is low. But we contribute. And we will contribute even more in the future. Definitely, Poland is ready to give others ».

Media stunt.

At the October 2008 summit, when he had been in latent conflict from the start with his Prime Minister, who refused to allow him to sit at the European summit table, he had no hesitation in entering through the door reserved for press. This had allowed him to cross the entire press room, for a long time, and thus to pay for an unprecedented media success.

Evolution...

Gradually, however, he had calmed down, had become a little more European, in particular according to the evolution of the Polish electorate. The rise in power of agricultural subsidies, in particular, swung the peasant electorate from European skepticism to enthusiasm that was not devoid of interest.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) Shooting at the Polish President in Georgia: big doubt ...

(2) The President of the PIS for a strong EU army and President!