Jaroslaw Kaczynski; photo - PR

Leader of the Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski has launched a scathing attack on the foreign policy of Donald Tusk's government, stating that relations with Lithuania and other Baltic states have deteriorated, while, on the hand, the government is over eager to please Russia.

Kaczynski expressed his thoughts in an article he wrote for the Rzeczpospolita daily.

“This black scenario would not have come to fruition if Donald Tusk’s government had demonstrated at least minimal willingness to continue a close relationship with our allies in the Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,” Kaczynski argues.

The remarks come in the wake of the Lithuanian ambassador being summoned to Poland's Foreign Ministry in connection with the treatment of the Polish minority in Lithuania.

Tusk's government is campaigning for Polish spelling to be used in the documents of Lithuanian citizens of Polish origin, likewise that Polish-related streetnames and statues be marked accordingly.

Similarly, Tusk's government is concerned about an allegedly hostile attitude towards Polish schools in Lithuania, after laws were enforced to introduce the Lithuanian language as a supplementary language of instruction for some subjects.

The Law and Justice leader writes that the “close relationship” with Poland‘s Baltic neighbours was “initiated by the previous Law and Justice government and by [Jaroslaw’s twin brother] the late President Lech Kaczynski.”

Yet according to Kaczynski, “almost from the beginning of [Tusk's] reign, the Civic Platform party began to treat these countries as weights which were disturbing a rapprochement with Moscow.”

Kaczynski claims that under the Law and Justice government (2005 - 07] the Lithuanian government had “increased funding for schools with instruction in Polish, and a branch of the Bialystok University was established in Vilnius.”

The Law and Justice leader further noted that current foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski's refusal to set foot in Lithuania until more advances were made on behalf of the Polish minority in that country was “childish.”

Summing up recent eastern policy, Kaczynski was damning: “In Belarus – defeat. In Ukraine – disaster. With Russia – catastrophe ... and now in Lithuania we have Waterloo in all its glory,” he wrote.

In riposte, spokesman for the government Pawel Gras exclaimed that “nothing came out of Lech Kaczynski's cuddling up to Lithuania,” and that the current situation “is not so terrible.” (nh/pg)