Twin Pot Stirrers put Poland in a Stew

The Wall Street Journal's recent expose ¨Double Trouble: Twin Politicians Shake Up Poland- and the EU¨ on the Kaczynskis,- and the EU the current twins acting as Polish president and prime minister, is almost unbiased. The article reads like a riveting plot of an action film- recounting the tale of two twins who were child movie stars, young leaders of the Solidarity movement against Communism, and now the leaders of Poland, a recent initiate (2004) into the European Union.

The question raised subtly throughout the article is over whether or not the Kaczynskis are heroic representatives of a democratic Poland or new dictators in the making. This charge is quite serious, considering the oppressive history of Poland under various regimes. Certainly, the twins are conservatives and their strong actions are extremely controversial. The Wall Street Journals admits the strong support for the twins by citing several people who believe that the Kaczynskis are fighting for their country and are correct in their complaints about the EU.

By the end of the article, however, the Kaczynskis are subtly being compared to political tyrants. The one inset in the article reads in bold type, “The Kaczynskis won't accept partners, they only have people who serve as tools for realizing their plans, said one early Kaczynski appointee who lost his job for being too independent.”

With a flourish the last paragraph warns of the twins slogan for “a Stronger State” as indicative of something sinister that would never be accepted in Western Europe. While the Wall Street Journal might be right to question the actions of these politicians, we must also question their bias and willingness to discount their popularity and clear record of actions fighting for Poland's national identity and people.