Jarosław Kaczyński

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Jarosław Kaczyński
Jarosław Kaczyński (2).jpg
Prime Minister of Poland
In office
14 July 2006 – 16 November 2007
President Lech Kaczyński
Deputy Ludwik Dorn
Zyta Gilowska
Przemysław Gosiewski
Andrzej Lepper
Roman Giertych
Preceded by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Succeeded by Donald Tusk
Chief of the Chancellery of the President
In office
22 December 1990 – 31 October 1991
President Lech Wałęsa
Preceded by Michał Janiszewski
Succeeded by Janusz Ziółkowski
Leader of Law and Justice
Assumed office
18 January 2003
Preceded by Lech Kaczyński
Personal details
Born Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński
(1949-06-18) 18 June 1949 (age 74)
Warsaw, Poland
Political party Law and Justice (2001–present)
Other political
affiliations
Solidarity (Before 1991)
Centre Agreement (1991–1997)
Solidarity Electoral Action (1997–2001)
Alma mater University of Warsaw
University of Gdańsk
Profession Lawyer
Religion Roman Catholicism[1]
Awards St. George's Order of Victory
Signature

Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (Polish pronunciation: [jaˈrɔswaf kaˈʈ͡ʂɨɲskʲi]; (born 18 June 1949) is a Polish conservative politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister from July 2006 to November 2007. He is the chairman of the Law and Justice party (PiS), which he cofounded in 2001. He has been the leader of the ruling party since the 2015 elections.

He has a Doctor of Law degree. He is the identical twin brother of the former Polish President Lech Kaczyński. After the 2007 electoral defeat of PiS, Kaczyński stepped down from office as prime minister following the first meeting of the new Sejm.[2]

He ran against Bronisław Komorowski in the Polish presidential election on 20 June 2010,[3] which were called following the death of Lech Kaczyński. Kaczyński announced his candidacy on 26 April 2010, and said he would take the place of his recently deceased brother.[4][5] He received 36.46% of votes in the first round, while acting president Bronisław Komorowski received 41.54%. In the second round, against Komorowski, he was defeated—receiving 46.99% of the votes, while Komorowski received 53.01% and won.

Personal life

Kaczyński is the identical twin brother of the late Polish President Lech Kaczyński. Jarosław and Lech were born in Warsaw.[6] The Kaczyński brothers are sons of Rajmund (an engineer who served as a soldier of the Armia Krajowa in World War II and a veteran of the Warsaw Uprising) and Jadwiga (a philologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences). On 11 May 2010, Jarosław Kaczyński said a Russian man saved his grandparents' lives in World War II.[7]

As children, Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński starred in the 1962 Polish film The Two Who Stole the Moon (Polish: O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc), based on a popular children's story by Kornel Makuszyński.[8]

Kaczyński is unmarried, but there were rumours about his close love relationship with one of his unmarried employees, MP Jolanta Szczypińska.[9][10] He lived with his ailing mother until her hospitalization.[3] In 2007, he said his only sleeping partner was Alik, his cat.[11] In 2006 the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on communist-era secret service files which documented a discussion on his sexuality. In the files, a former SB officer speculated on Kaczyński's sexual orientation.[12] Relations between Lech Wałęsa and Kaczyński have for many years been strained since Wałęsa told a joke about 'two brothers who arrive at a party – one with his wife and one with his "husband"'. He was alluding to Jarosław Kaczyński having a male sexual partner.[12][13] Kaczyński resides in Warsaw.

Early career

Jarosław Kaczyński was a graduate of law and administration of Warsaw University, which in 1976 awarded him a PhD in Law.

In the 1980s, he became a member of the Solidarity trade union. Kaczyński was the executive editor of the Tygodnik Solidarność weekly in 1989–91.

In 1991, he created the centrist, Christian democratic Centre Agreement party and later became its chairman, remaining in the role until 1998. In the years 1991–3 and 1997–2005 Kaczyński was a member of the Polish Parliament (Sejm).[14]

2005 elections

Kaczyński was the Law and Justice prime ministerial candidate in the September 2005 Polish parliamentary election.[15] However, when the party emerged as winner of the election, he pledged that he would not take the position, expecting that his nomination would reduce the chances of his brother Lech Kaczyński, who was a candidate for the October presidential election.

Kaczyński was the architect of the coalition with the left wing populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Polish: Samoobrona) and the conservative Christian League of Polish Families party. Party-member Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was appointed Prime Minister.

In the succeeding months, he was described as a frontbench MP and the leader of his party. Many also described Kaczyński as Poland's most influential politician. He was said to have enormous influence on the Prime Minister's decision-making process.

Prime Minister

Following reports of a rift between Kaczyński and Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, the latter tendered his resignation on 7 July 2006, and Kaczyński was appointed prime minister by the President Lech Kaczyński on 10 July, and sworn in on 14 July, following the formation of cabinet and a confidence vote in the Sejm.[16][17][18] During Lech Kaczyński's election campaign in 2005, he had pledged that should he win, Jarosław would not become prime minister.[19] Kaczyński's government had also made changes to the tax.[clarification needed] At the request of his government, Parliament lowered PIT and rent tax. Kaczyński controversially initiated a nationwide program (lustracja) which required thousands of public employees, teachers, and journalists to formally declare whether or not they had collaborated with the security services of the former communist regime.[20] Kaczyński's government was criticized both at home and abroad for poor foreign relationships with Germany and Russia.[21]

2007 elections

Despite gaining votes, Law and Justice lost the parliamentary election on 21 October 2007, finishing a distant second behind Christian-democratic and conservative liberal Civic Platform. Kaczyński was succeeded as prime minister by Donald Tusk (after which Kaczyński remained chairman of Law and Justice, becoming leader of the opposition).

Presidential candidacy

Following the death of Lech Kaczyński, Jarosław announced that he would run for president against Bronisław Komorowski in the presidential elections held on 20 June 2010.[3][22] Kaczyński was seen to have softened his image during the campaign, in order to win centrist voters.[23] On 11 May 2010, he made a televised address to Russia, greeting his 'Russian friends' and praising the millions of Russians who died fighting in World War II.[7] He got 36.46% of the votes in the first round, while acting president Bronisław Komorowski got 41.54%. He was defeated in the second round, getting 46.99% of the votes, while Komorowski got 53.01%, which made him the winner.

See also

References

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External links

Political offices
Preceded by Chief of the Chancellery of the President
1990–1991
Succeeded by
Janusz Ziółkowski
Preceded by Prime Minister of Poland
2006–2007
Succeeded by
Donald Tusk
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of Law and Justice
2002–present
Incumbent
Preceded by Law and Justice nominee for President of Poland
2010
Succeeded by
Andrzej Duda