July 18, 2007 (the date of publication in Russian)
Alexander Rudakov, Alexei Chichkin
NOT ALL THE POLES ARE FOND OF AMERICA
A Pilsudski admirer is sick and tired of Kaczynski's "Gross-Out"
Today's Poland is believed to be the most pro-American country in Europe. However, this stereotype, which Poland owes to the efforts of President Lech Kaczynski and his Premier and twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has little in common with the Polish reality.
Poland's major political parties have split over the issue of deployment of US ABM bases on the country's territory, as well as over the aggressive anti-Russian stance of the President and Prime Minister. It is noteworthy that this disaccord has a longer history than George W. Bush's ABM initiative.
Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defense Party, which sparked the latest crisis in the Polish Government, is the second largest party in Poland and a member of the ruling coalition. Lepper's demand to initiate an all-national public referendum on ABM deployment was not the first occasion of Self-Defense's reluctance to follow the guidelines of Washington's policy.
In autumn 2006, Andrzej Lepper strongly criticized the decision of the President to recruit 2000 Polish soldiers for assistance to the supreme "ally" in Afghanistan. The conflict nearly resulted in a collapse of the government. Lepper also repeatedly denounced the West's ostracism of Belarus, and insisted on normalization of Poland's political relations with Russia.
In Moscow, Lepper as a political figure was almost unnoticed until 2005 when he was appointed Deputy Premier. Only in recent years, Russian politicians recognized him as a serious politician, and made a number of friendly gestures, like bestowal of the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technologies.
Self-Defense is often compared with the early Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, chaired by populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. This parallel is superficial. Actually, Lepper's party is not only a unique political phenomenon in Eastern Europe, but a political movement with a specific and thoroughly articulated ideology.
"Who says that capitalism is the only alternative to socialism?" Lepper often inquires his audience, definitely suggesting the possibility of implementation of an alternative "third way". His ideal is a society, organized upon solidarity and patriotic mobilization, in which the state takes charge for protection of the poorest population and guarantees the nation's cultural identity.
The description of Lepper as a "pro-Russian" politician is too simplistic. Andrzej Lepper is an ardent Polish nationalist, for whom the "historical insults" from Russia, including the memory of Polish soldiers, executed supposedly by the Red Army in Katyn, is as important as for the Kaczynski brothers. His icon is General Jozef Pilsudski, who fought against the Red Army in 1920 and later became the dictator of the Second Polish Republic.
Urging his supporters to remember the past, Lepper insists that the mistakes of earlier ages should not be repeated. Believing that his country is strong enough to be independent from major European nations, he was opposed to Poland's entry in the European Union, particularly criticizing the conditions imposed by the EU bureaucracy on state subsidies for agriculture. The related anti-EU sentiment of rural owners granted his party a broad electoral base.
Andrzej Lepper's political alliance with Kaczynski emerged from this natural euro-skepticism, which involves also his antagonism to the EU's "non-traditional" approach to religion, family and education. However, Lepper does not accept Kaczynski's servility to Washington, and the resulting vassal dependence of Poland from the White House's geopolitical strategies. The clearer this dependence was visible, the stronger was Lepper's opposition to partnership with America – primarily based on the assumption that US dictate is a far smaller threat for Polish political and especially cultural identity than pressure from the EU bureaucracy.
In the situation of today, Lepper views Russia as a more natural partner for Poland, believing that Moscow does not any longer challenge his country's independence, and correctly realizing that in the sphere of cultural tradition, Poles – despite the ecclesiastical difference – have more in common with Russians than with today's West European nations. For relevant reasons, Lepper seeks friendly relations with Slavonic peoples generally. This interest to the common cultural background is a rare exception not only for Poland but for the whole Eastern Europe.
The Self-Defense Party swiftly intervened in the Polish political scene in 2001, gaining10% votes in the elections to the Sejm. This result was reproduced four years later, despite forecasts of wilt after Poland's entry in the EU. Polish experts believe that Lepper's party managed to merge the electorate of the Polish National Party (PSL), once popular in rural regions, as well as a part of leftist supporters of the Union of the Democratic Left (SLD). According to Zycie Warszawy newspaper, many of those voters who hesitated in the choice between the political successions of the Polish United Workers's Party and Solidarnosc (Solidarity), now support Lepper rather from a desire to express their social protest, without entering into subtleties of his ideology.
In Poland's high society, Lepper, who belonged neither to the post-Communist nomenclature nor to the bureaucratic posterity of the alternative Solidarnosc, was treated as an odd bird. In the Communist period, Lepper headed a collectively-owned cattle-breeding enterprise (like Alexander Lukashenko in Soviet Byelorussia).
Andrzej Lepper was also frequently blamed for partnership with extravagant political figures, some of them openly opposed to the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, his party member Mateusz
Piskorski had become famous for a project of a unified empire of Poles, Ukrainians and Russians, based on revived Paganism. The idea of "Pagan imperialism" was as exotic for Poland as for Russia. Nevertheless, Piskorski was admitted to the party, though Lepper never shared his bizarre views. Sometimes, Lepper was also blamed for xenophobia – though he never allowed himself anti-Semitic invectives which were typical for the Kaczynskis-patronized Radio Maria.
Today, Self-Defense Party possesses 46 of 460 seats in the lower house of the Polish Parliament. Disagreeing with the pro-American policy of the President's Law and Justice Party, Lepper has twice threatened the senior partner with Self-Defense's withdrawal from the coalition, referring to polls indicating that in case of snap elections, Law and Justice would surely fail.
Regarding Washington's special interest in keeping the Kaczynskis in power, Lepper's political game implies a serious risk. Polish security services, with strong backing from the CIA, are are seeking any possibility to compromise him, ease out from party leadership, and replace by a convenient political marionette. One of such attempts scandalously went bust last year, when Self Defense's deputy Renata Beger revealed the audiotape of her talk with Kaczynskis' emissaries who offered her the post of a deputy minister for "giving away" Lepper. Still, this scandal, since known as Begergate, did not prevent the Kaczynskis from new attempts to pressure Lepper and his party by means of intrigues or direct threat. He is openly explained that his anti-American views may hurl him not just into deprivation but into custody. "Gross-out, gross-out, and nothing but gross-out", he only says about this hounding.
Similar pressure was exerted last year on a popular Lithuanian politician Victor Uspasskikh, whose Labor Party's success in the national elections did not satisfy the US patrons of President Valdas Adamkus. Uspasskikh was eventually ousted from the party, accused of financial wrongdoings, and finally forced to escape to Russia under threat of arrest. Realizing a high probability of identical treatment, Lepper, however, does not give up his views and activity. He realizes that the policy of the Kaczynski twins, aimed at Poland’s transformation into a humbly obedient chapter of the Washington Politburo, is far less popular than it is believed from the other side of the Atlantic. His bold behavior offers hope than in relatively close future, Poland will manage to acquire a more decent role in geopolitical alignments.
Number of shows: 1373
ENG 
