after winning Poland’s presidential run-off election Sunday. Yet, Kaczynski sounded a conciliatory note in claiming victory, urging the party of his opponent to participate in a new government.
He struggled to calm a crowd of enthusiastic supporters who began shouting his name as soon as the first vote tallies were announced on Polish television. Kaczynski said he was pleased with the results, and complimented his rival, Donald Tusk for running a good campaign.
He urged Tusk’s liberal Civic Platform to work with his conservative Law and Justice Party on forming a cabinet. Tusk admitted his defeat, but told his followers that Sunday’s election results showed his party should play a role in a new government of what is the largest economy among the 10 new European Union members.
"I wish to say now when we see each other in this campaign for the last moment that I have most probably lost, but you have won. We have a long way behind us to the moment where almost 50 percent of the electorate depended on our values like freedom and solidarity," Tusk said.
LAW AND JUSTICE
Tusk’s Civic Platform and Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party have been in talks to form a
government since September when they carried most votes in the parliamentary elections which ousted the ex-Communists from power.
Both parties are right of center, support the adoption of the Euro currency by the year 2010 and pledged to fight the corruption that plagued the previous government. But they disagree on how to tackle Poland’s social issues.
While Tusk is more oriented toward market economics and favors a flat tax, Kaczynski wants a tax system under which high earners pay more, and proposes tax breaks for those with large families. His campaign also stressed Roman Catholic values in the homeland of late Pope John Paul II, and opposed abortion and gay rights.
SUPPORTERS HAPPY
Kaczynski’s victory was music for the ears of his supporters, who fear the country will abandon its Catholic roots in the post-Communist era. The Catholic Church was seen as a source of opposition towards the atheistic oriented Communist regime in Poland, when active Christians and dissidents faced persecution.
Yet Catholic calls for Christian values in politics have come increasingly under pressure since the collapse of Communism in 1989, as the country moved towards a market oriented economy and eventually European Union membership in 2004.
"I think that Lech Kaczynski is a good person to deal with a lot of difficulties in Poland," an unidentified female voter told the English language service of Polish Radio also known as Radio Polonia.
"I think he is a very strong man. He knows what he wants, and he sees politics as a service for his country, and nothing else," another man said.
But others said they are concerned for the future of democracy because incoming president Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party is lead by his twin brother and as the largest political group in Parliament will also provide the prime minister.
YOUNG PEOPLE
It was one of the reasons why at least some young people voted for Tusk’s Civic Platform. "My choice is Donald Tusk. There are two main reasons for that. The first reason is that I am more liberal oriented in terms of economic things. That’s the first reason," one voter told Radio Polonia.
"The second reason is that I think it is not a good situation when the country would be governed by the same family. We have a judiciary power we have an executive power and we create bills. If two of these powers are in [the hands of] the same family, I don’t think that’s a good situation basically."
Kaczynski will replace President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Communist. (Parts of this BosNewsLife story also aired on Voice Of America (VOA).
