The conspiracy theorists who have taken over Poland | The Guardian - Feb. 2016 |

Jarosław Kaczyński has convinced Poland that it is threatened by a shadowy leftwing cabal - and become the country's most powerful man.

At the time of Poland's liberation more than a quarter of a century ago, the Kaczyński twins were middle-ranking members of the Solidarity leadership. They participated in the 1989 round-table talks between Solidarity and the communists, which paved the way for the elections that led to the collapse of communism. However, they built their careers on the argument that Wałęsa and the liberal intellectuals at the top of Solidarity betrayed Poland's transition to democracy by allowing communists to keep their hands on the levers of power in exchange for the status of high office.

[...]

With a penchant for conspiracy and a vituperative speaking style, Jarosław Kaczyński routinely brands his opponents "gangsters", "cronies", and "reds". Before the parliamentary elections in October 2015, he claimed that migrants from the Middle East were bringing cholera and dysentery to Europe, risking the spread of "various parasites and protozoa". More recently, he implied that people demonstrating against the Law and Justice government were "the worst sort of Poles" - an epithet they have adopted as a badge of honour.

○ Lech Kaczyński vs. Sikorski

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