Polish right takes all as Kaczynski wins run-off

By Pawel Sobczak

WARSAW (Reuters) – Conservative Lech Kaczynski won Poland’s
presidential run-off on Sunday on a platform combining
traditionalist Catholic values with promises to curb corruption
and shore up the welfare state.

Partial results showed Kaczynski, a tough-on-crime Warsaw
mayor, captured more than 54 percent of the vote, an
eight-point advantage over his pro-business ally-turned-rival
Donald Tusk.

Kaczynski’s victory seals a swing to the right in the
European Union’s biggest ex-communist newcomer after his Law
and Justice and Tusk’s moderate Civic Platform crushed the
ruling left in general elections last month.

A moderate nationalist who is wary of deeper European
integration, Kaczynski replaces veteran leftist Aleksander
Kwasniewski, who could not run after two five-year terms.

Kaczynski said that the EU newcomer may hold a referendum
on adopting the euro in 2010.

“The question of the euro should be resolved through a
referendum, which could take place in 2010,” Kaczynski told
Reuters in a brief interview.

Kaczynski has expressed reservations about euro zone entry,
but said the referendum was necessary because adopting the
single currency meant giving up part of national sovereignty.

The race between Tusk and Kaczynski, former activists in
the pro-democracy Solidarity movement that toppled communism in
1989, became a plebiscite on whether the country of 38 million
needs more free-market medicine or more welfare.

Kaczynski, who portrayed Tusk as a heartless free-market
zealot, extended an olive branch to his defeated rival. He
urged him to join forces in government after coalition talks
between their center-right parties stalled during the campaign.

“I want to call … for us to quickly conclude work on the
government. I will approach Donald Tusk, who fought superbly in
this campaign,” Kaczynski told supporters.

FOURTH REPUBLIC

In the presidential and parliamentary campaigns, the
Kaczynskis combined patriotic rhetoric and traditional
Christian values with skepticism of free markets — a message
which appealed to many poor, less educated Poles.

They promised to build a “Fourth Republic” in a clean break
with the corruption that characterized the post-communist
“Third Republic.”

Sleaze and political patronage peaked during the four-year
rule of the social democrats, whose popularity sunk to all-time
lows despite their success in bringing Poland into the EU.

Transparency International rates Poland the most corrupt
nation in Europe, putting it in 70th place in its 2005 ranking
of perceptions of corruption worldwide.

The double crown won by Law and Justice in both elections
is a sweet reward for the Kaczynski twins, 56, after years of
never quite making it to the top in politics.

The former child-stars of a popular 1962 movie called “The
Two Who Stole The Moon,” the brothers were kingmakers in
previous center-right governments but were shunned for top
posts due to their combative, all-or-nothing style.

The president is commander-in-chief of the army, can
propose or veto legislation, nominate prime ministers — who
hold most executive power — and, in some cases, dissolve
parliament.

He influences the government’s foreign policy, a field
where Kaczynski faces a steep challenge after irking big
neighbors Germany and Russia with scathing remarks during the
campaign.

He has raised eyebrows in Europe by courting the religious
right with his anti-gay remarks and pro-death penalty talk.

GOVERNMENT TALKS

The financial markets rooted for Tusk, seeing him as a
counterbalance to Kaczynski’s ambivalence about the need for
fiscal reforms and liberal economic policies.

Analysts expect the zloty and Polish bonds to dip on Monday
but losses will not be deep if coalition talks make headway.

“The main focus remains the coalition talks and the market
still basically trusts that the two parties will come to some
sort of a compromise,” said Tania Kotsos, currency strategist
with RBC in London.

Tusk’s Civic Platform said they will not give up on their
campaign pledge to lower taxes and cut red tape to spur growth
and reduce Poland’s 18 percent unemployment, the EU’s highest.

(Additional reporting by Malgorzata Rakowiec in Gdansk)