Jaroslaw Kaczynski; photo - PAP“I do not accept and do not want to legitimise such actions with my presence in the Council,” the leader of the Law and Justice party wrote in a letter to the secretary of the NSC, Stanislaw Koziej, which he received Monday evening.
The NSC is met at 15.30 CET to discuss Poland’s strategy at the NATO Lisbon summit in December.
President Bronislaw Komorowski said that he has not read the resignation letter as it was not addressed to him but that he “regrets the decision”.
In the letter, Kaczynski complains that the Civic Platform/Polish Peasant’s Party coalition government has not represented the interests of Poland during the investigation into the Smolensk disaster which killed his twin brother Lech and wife Anna on 10 April. Law and Justice has consistently argued that the government has not been forceful enough with the Kremlin and has failed to demand that Russia turns over all relevant information into the causes of the crash.
Kaczynski also says in the letter that recent agreements, such as the gas deal with Russia -“We remain in a position to be blackmailed [by Russia], he writes” - have not been in Poland’s interests.
“I believe [these actions] degrade my homeland,” Kaczynski wrote in his resignation letter.
The NSC is a body which comprises of President Komorowski, PM Tusk, defence and foreign ministers and leaders of all the parties represented in Parliament.
Though an advisory body to the head of state on external and internal security the NSC has no constitutional power.
Mariusz Blaszczak, leader of the Law and Justice party in parliament, justified Kaczynski’s resignation by arguing that: “It is not possible in the National Security Council to decide on anything. It is only an advisory body and the voice of the opposition leader is heard through the work of the Lower House of Parliament and public forums.”
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