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Kaczynski: The other Lech who changed Poland's face
Though he didn't come from the dockyard in Gdansk, Lech Kaczynski honed his political skills under the leadership of the legend with whom he shared his first name. Kaczynski joined Lech Walesa's Solidarity in the 1980s and became an important leader of the anti-communist movement as he spent time in jail on the charges that he had worked in illegal union activities. Out of jail and back to their union activities, Lech and identical twin brother Jaroslaw were involved in negotiations between the Solidarity movement and the government. Later, in 1990, the Kaczynski brothers became the driving force behind Walesa's election as president, when Poland held its first free election after the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe.
As Walesa put Poland on the path of post-communism reconstruction in the early 1990s, the Kaczynski brothers fell out with the Polish president over the issue of Solidarity leadership and found themselves outside mainstream politics. Not used to lying low, the brothers who shot to fame at the age of 12 as stars in the film 'Two boys who stole the moon', founded the Law and Justice party, which stresses the traditional values of the Roman Catholic Church, in 2001.
This was the period that saw Lech's metamorphosis from a backroom boy to a politician who was not afraid to appeal to populist sentiments. In 2004 and 2005, as mayor of Warsaw, Kaczynski made the controversial decision of banning the city's gay rights parade. Poland was subsequently convicted at the European Court of Human Rights of being in contravention of EU law. But his right-wing on many issues found ready reception among many Poles, especially traditionalist and rural voters, and Lech won the nations presidency in 2005 as he travelled around the country telling people that they needed a president who would stand up for their interests. After assuming presidency, he lost no time in naming the other Kaczynski as the prime minister.
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