Members of the Law and Justice parliamentary party and others must choose loyalty or go their own way."
The letter is in response to criticism by MEP Marek Migalski, expelled from the European Parliamentary caucus last week after criticising the leadership of the party in Warsaw, blaming Jaroslaw Kaczynski for successive defeats in the polls. The MEP charged that Kaczynski’s strident and aggressive style of attacking opponents would lead to another defeat in the upcoming local elections this autumn and general election next year.
Migalski’s comments, made on his blog late last month, revealed a split in the party between “hawks” such as Kaczynski or MEP and former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro and “doves” such as Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska and Pawel Poncyliusz, who want a more consensual style of politics from the party leadership.
The apparent dispute in the party led to speculation that Kaczynski was about to resign as party chairman. The open letter to party activists seeks to silence the speculation, however. Kaczynski is here to stay and he will not be changing his style of leadership, he says.
Referring to the demand Kaczynski should refrain from criticising the investigation into the Smolensk air disaster in April which killed his twin brother, for instance, the leader of Law and Justice says he will not be silenced.
“This is a matter related to the status of our motherland and to the status of all Poles. It‘s a matter of loyalty to our countrymen in general from those who represent the Polish state,” Kaczynski writes to party members.
No change
In an example how he has no intention of softening his rhetoric, Kaczynski writes that the Polish government’s apparent acquiescence toward the investigators of the disaster in Moscow - who he believes have held back vital evidence from Polish investigators into the cause of the disaster which killed 96 Poles on their way to a Katyn memorial anniversary ceremony in western Russia - is nothing more than “a scandal - a complete surrender and one hundred percent servility to Moscow”.
Kaczynski believes the cause of the disaster was not simply pilot error, and has said earlier that Russia must carry the blame too - “There is a thin line between an accident and murder,” he wrote some weeks ago.
In his letter to party faithful on 1 September, Kaczynski gives his support, yet again, to the so-called Defenders of the Cross, who are protesting outside the Presidential Palace, demanding a cross put their in memory of his dead brother remain where it is and not be moved to a nearby church, as ordered by President Komorowski.
Kaczynski, in the aggressive style which drew criticism from some in the party, writes:
“We respect the defenders of the Cross and regard them as people of strong religious and patriotic values. […] We are outraged at the attitude of the President, who caused the conflict, and authorities in Warsaw who do not wish to oppose violations of law.”
But as a political party we are not involved in this dispute," he claims. (pg)
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