Poland's Prime Minister
Jaroslaw Kaczynski
Poland: Has The Polish Prime Minister Instigated Too Many Fights?
Warsaw, Poland 5 March, 2007 The Polish Prime Minister is involved in disputes with many people who should be his allies. They take his time and divert his focus from managing Poland's Government. Has he instigated too many fights?
The list of disputes that are occupying the Prime Minister's time is getting longer each week.
His Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Andrzej Lepper is demanding that laws be changed, in violation of ER rules, to benefit farmers who grow crops for the bio fuel industry. Lepper is in a battle with the Minister of Economy. If he does not get his way he says that he will leave the coalition.
Kaczynski's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Roman Giertych is pushing an anti-abortion program in the European Union which program has caused Poland a lot of embarrassment. And Giertych is forcing Kaczynski's hand to take a stand on that matter.
The European Union has given Poland a letter saying that it had seven days to stop construction in the Rospuda Valley. If Kaczynski does not stop the construction, Poland stands to lose large amounts of money from the European Union. For now the birds laying eggs have stopped the protests in the forest. But the battle rages in the streets of Poland.
And the Rospuda Valley issue is only of the problems with the EU. Poland is under pressure for power plant emissions, the budget deficit and ignoring fishing regulations. And then it has blocked EU negotiations on a new cooperation agreement between Russia and the EU.
PAIIZ and POT are headless and the Prime Minister's Chancellery have been involved. Both the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIIZ) and the Polish Tourist Organization (POT) recently saw reshuffles on their management boards. PAIIZ CEO Jan Chadam, selected on Thursday, has already resigned, while the POT supervisory board has failed to nominate Stanislawa Zwijacz-Niemiec.
Kaczynski's close associate for years, Ludwik Dorn, also known as the Third Twin because he was so close to the Kaczynski brothers, quit his position as Minister of Interior after disagreeing with Kaczynski over a "seriously flawed" policy. Dorn has been given another position that is reportedly close to Kaczynski but he is subject to an investigation that pits him against the Minister of Justice. What can happen in the future remains to be seen as Kaczynski will have to take sides.
Over 700 officials stand to lose their mandate to govern for failure to file a financial statement in accordance with a recent election law that requires them to file one within 30 days of being elected. That has resulted in a high profile battle between the president of Warsaw and the Prime Minister.
The report on the liquidation of the Military Intelligence Services was a dud on arrival. Rather than helping Kaczynski it has wreaked upon him a great amount of criticism. The fallout from this report continues with the author of the report, Antoni Marcierewicz, coming under fire for his own transgressions.
The public television channels gave the Military Intelligence Services report extensive bad coverage. This was too much for the Government so the head of public television, who was too independent for the Polish Government, was suddenly replaced by the head of the President's Chancellery. This change, done at night, was criticized by many members of the Prime Minister's own party including his own appointee to the head of the Radio and Television Board. And it has left the country with the feeling the public television is now nothing but a propaganda tool for the current government. A new head of Public Television will be appointed this month to replace the new head of Public Television who was just put in office.
The Minister of Justice and new Minister of Interior have been accused by the press of being involved in a pre-election cover-up. They have gone into a defensive mode and Kaczynski saw fit to promise to get to the bottom of the problem.
The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court criticized the Minister of Justice for his handling and pre-conviction of people charged with crimes. The Prime Minister criticized the Chief Justice for making his comments. The former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court sided with the current Chief Justice.
The Speaker of Polish Parliament wants a constitutional amendment that would affect the abortion law. Kaczynski distanced himself from the change after, according to the Speaker, initially supporting it. Kaczynski dumped the issue in the lap of the Speaker when he said that any problems that would result because the attempt to make the change would be the direct responsibility of the Speaker. The Speaker has not been diverted from his goal.
The effect of this turmoil is visible. Kaczynski has even refused to answer questions put to him by reporters and has actually walked out of press conferences leaving the reporters and people around him very surprised.
Former Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has commented on the situation and said that after one year in power people have gotten arrogant.
That arrogance appears to have caused a great deal of infighting that is taking a lot of Kaczynski's time. And nothing seems to be on the horizon that will stop it.
The Prime Minister has his vision. But is his vision being impaired by what Marcinkiewicz describes as the arrogance around him.
Has he instigated too many fights?
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