Homophobic Prime Minister of Poland leaves office
Jaroslaw Kaczynski has handed in the resignation of his cabinet, officially bringing an end to the Law and Justice-led government who had been in power in Poland since autumn 2005.
Prime Minister Mr Kaczynski handed his resignation documents to his twin brother President Lech Kaczynski, during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw yesterday.
His resignation follows Justice and Law’s defeat in elections held last month.
According to AP, the outgoing prime minister said he was resigning with his Cabinet after what was an “exceptionally difficult” tenure.
He summed up what he said were his government’s achievements in economics, domestic and foreign affairs, but insisted the public had failed to fully understand what had been accomplished.
“We worked in very difficult circumstances, making it difficult for many citizens to find out the truth,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.
“We can finish our term with our head held high,” he said toward the end of a nearly 30-minute speech.
“The results, not just in words but in reality, are good.”
The president said he would only accept the resignation after the newly elected parliament meets later in the afternoon. The outgoing prime minister was expected to present his resignation to lawmakers as well.
The president, whose term is separate from that of his brother’s and runs until 2010, will then face the duty of tasking the man who defeated his brother, Donald Tusk, with forming the next government.
He plans to do so later this week, presidential spokesman Michal Kaminski said.
Mr. Tusk, head of the pro-market and EU-friendly Civic Platform
party, defeated Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party on October 21, winning 209 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament.
Civic Platform lacks an outright majority and has been in coalition talks with the centrist Polish People’s Party, known in the past as the Polish Peasants’ Party.
Tusk has begun to reveal some of the politicians he has picked for his Cabinet, including Radoslaw Sikorski, a former defense minister in Mr. Kaczynski’s government, for foreign minister, according to an interview published Monday in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Mr Sikorski resigned from his job as defence minister in February after falling out with the Kaczynskis.
The Kaczynskis have called several controversies within the LGBT community.
On a state visit to Ireland at the beginning of this year Lech Kaczynski said that the promotion of homosexuality would lead to the eventual destruction of the human race, while Jaroslaw has also been known to make homophobic remarks during his political career.
As the then Mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski banned the city’s gay pride parade in 2004.
He also banned the event in 2005 while allowing a homophobic counter-demonstration, the “Parade of Normality.”
In August 2006, when quizzed by the EU over his gay rights record, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he was not a homophobe.
His resignation will put an end to homophobic legislation proposed by the Kaczynski government.
The first test for the new government will be November 17th when the March of Equality in Poznan (Western Poland) is planned.
In 2005 the police in Poznan detained and interrogated 65 demonstrators during the March of Equality organised by leftist and gay activists.
