Don't judge Poland by the Kaczynski twins

In todays IHT we can read an editiorial comment about Poland as follow:

Politicians in "old Europe" can barely conceal their frustration over the behavior of Poland since it entered the European Union.

Instead of swiftly adopting Western standards of democracy and tolerance, Polish politics has been filled with grating talk about religion and nationalism.

The political rise of President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has done nothing to allay these concerns. To many Europeans - and many Poles - the 57-year-old identical twins and their conservative Law and Justice Party represent a worrisome brand of retrograde politics.

But it is too soon to write off Poland. Other former Communist countries have lurched to and fro politically as they sought their footing in a new universe. Europeans should show a little forebearance, and try to persuade Poland to move toward the EU's standards of democracy, rather than alienating the Poles by treating them as grubby, unwelcome country cousins.

That does not mean that Poland's neighbors should not make it clear that some of what the Kaczynskis profess on homosexuality, abortion and womens' rights, for example is, indeed, unacceptable. It is not in Poland's best interests for its leaders to maintain an alliance with the ultraconservative Roman Catholic League of Polish Families, which is widely seen as anti-Semitic, and the populist, Polish Self-Defense Party, which preaches against the new pan- Europeanism.

The twins' clumsiness in dealing with the outside world is also harmful, especially their seemingly visceral hatred of Russia and Germany. When a left-wing paper in Berlin, Die Tageszeitung, ran a satirical article about Lech Kaczynski's aversion to all things German, the twins lashed out furiously, comparing the article to Nazi propaganda, demanding that the German government do something about the crime of insulting a head of state and canceling a Polish- German-French summit meeting. The very fact that President Kaczynski, who was elected last October, chose to name his brother as prime minister after insisting that he would not, smacks of shifty politics.

But to view the twins as a reflection of all Poland, and to use that as an excuse to condemn the induction of former Soviet satellites into the EU, is both unfair and unwise. The Kaczsynskis cut their teeth fighting Communism, and much of their thinking was shaped in that struggle.

That does not mean their conclusions are shared by all their countrymen. Many Poles have been embarrassed by their statements and disappointed in their failure to do anything about very real economic problems, including an unemployment rate of 18 percent.

There is no reason to treat the Kaczyniskis with kid gloves, but Europe should be able to take a long enough view to trust that the democratic process will ensure they are not a permanent fixture. It would be tragic to poison Poland's relations with the rest of Europe this early in the game.

Source: the International Herald Tribune