It’s election season in Poland. Confused by the bewildering political menu on offer, Poles might also be forgiven for thinking that they are seeing double.
The ubiquitous posters of the plump, grey-haired chap demanding to be made prime minister later this month are (almost) indistinguishable from those of the plump, grey-haired bloke urging that he be made president.
The reason is not that some megalomaniac is after both jobs. Rather, the most redoubtable double act in European politics is going for a double whammy. The Kaczynski brothers — Lech and Jaroslaw, identical twins, former child film stars and veterans of Solidarity — are determined to keep Polish politics a family affair.
If they succeed — both are running second in the opinion polls at the moment — the impact could be mind-boggling. Is that President Lech Kaczynski sitting at the top table at the European Union banquet in Brussels? Or is Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski standing in for him at alternate sessions? Who can tell?
The 56-year-old siblings were born 45 minutes apart. Polish cognoscenti say the only way to tell your Lech from your Jaroslaw is to have a good look at the faces. Lech, the younger and the current mayor of Warsaw who wants to be president, has a mole, unlike Jaroslaw, leader of the conservative Law and Justice Party who hopes to be the next prime minister.
Until a few weeks ago, the twins appeared well-placed to take over Poland. And they can still expect to remain a formidable force in a country that is swinging decisively their way — to the right.
But if current polling is to be believed, Lech is currently more than 20 points behind the presidential frontrunner, Donald Tusk, a liberal conservative, while Jaroslaw’s party is also trailing Tusk’s Civic Platform Party by 13 points in the parliamentary contest.
The twins share robust conservative views, keep their own counsel and have a reputation for being para-noid and unruly. They are proudly Polish and Catholic. They like law and order. They don’t like gays, abortion, Russians or Germans, communists, football hooligans or corrupt businessmen and politicians. Fortunately for them, much of that palette coincides with the sentiments and prejudices of many Poles. — Â