“If I could turn back time, I would, but now we must look to the future,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski has said in his first interview of the presidential election campaign following the death of his twin brother, president Lech Kaczynski in the Smolensk air disaster.

So far, Kaczynski has maintained a media silence since the plane crash, and has been wearing black in continued mourning for the late president and his wife Maria.

Kaczynski answered questions over the internet from bloggers at the Salon24.pl web site. He said that following the April 10 disaster, Polish political life had a chance to find a new way of working: “It will be more collaborative,” he said and hoped the sense of national mourning could result in a “positive impulse” to society in the wake of the tragedy.

Kaczynski said that in this new social mood the conditions for cooperation between a new president and government are much better than before.

Jarosław Kaczyński also spoke of a greater need for compromise in society. If elected, he said, he would seek a compromise with the government in such areas as health reform and spending cuts.

Politicians from the ruling Civic Platform have described Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s interview as “a typical marketing strategy”. Grzegorz Schetyna said: ‘Kaczyński is not sincere. We all know what he stands for and what Law and Justice stands for”.

According to Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s election team, he is to start a series of meetings with voters next week. Opinion polls show that he is gaining ground on frontrunner Komorowski. According to a survey by GfK Polonia, Kaczyński currently enjoys the support of 21 percent of voters in the 20-29 age bracket. The corresponding result for April was 9 percent.

Meanwhile, Civic Platform’s candidate for president Bronislaw Komorowski is using his family to try and stem a flow of support coming over the Kaczynski camp in recent days.

A photo depicting Komorowski as the happy family man was splashed all over the media on Thursday.

“The picture of Bronislaw Komorowski would be incomplete without his family,” claims Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska from Komorowski’s electoral staff. She added that his wife and children will take part in presidential political broadcasts and will support him “in other activities.”

Observers say that the use of Komorowski’s family in the campaign is to draw a contrast with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is single. (pg/mk/mg)

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