The Kaczynski Twins and the End of the 21st Century Liberum Veto

By Tracy Dove, Ph.D
Editor, The Russia News Service

October 22, 2007

For the past 2 years the Kaczynski brothers have held Poland captive to their own personal Satans of anti-Germanism, anti-Europeanism and anti-Russianism, leaving the country friendless in a time of growing European integration. Instead of pursuing free market policies and embracing the Euro, the Kaczynskis looked across the Atlantic for friends and found only one- George W. Bush. If that wasn't enough national humiliation, the twins turned their attention to Polish society where they began a dubious campaign against corruption, which did little to impress anyone under the age of 60 or who wasn't actively farming cabbage. As a result of the Kaczynski's witch hunts for communists, abortionists and wealthy bankers, the coalition partners who had supported their Law and Justice Party finally pulled the plug on the government, forcing early elections this weekend which put an end to an era of bickering, stagnation and name-calling.

Poles can barely count the years of stable post-1989 government on one hand; the transition from Communist rule has not been easy there, although the Czech Republic, the Baltic states and other former East Bloc countries have done rather well. Poland is a victim of its own history of unstable governments, medieval Catholicism and partition trauma, and despite a clear turnaround of fortune at the end of the 20th century, Poles are still twice shy about anything or anyone that could breach the city walls.

To what degree can the Poles blame themselves for weak government? The roots of dysfunction go back to the 17th century, when a "negative Poland policy" was practiced by the country's neighbors- Prussia, Austria and Russia- in order to keep Poland a weak and agricultural nation. The political tool that made this possible was the Liberum Veto, which was a parliamentary rule of procedure that required a consensus for passing any laws. Since consensus was rarely achieved, Poland imploded politically into internal grumbling, but a new constitution was finally written in 1791 which got rid of this useless feature. The only problem with a functioning Poland was that the three empires surrounding it were against any improvements there and reacted by geographically partitioning the country into non-existence by 1795. Suspicions of neighbors run deep in Poland- but also of each other- and the Kaczynskis capitalized and exploited this fear.

Even in the 20th century, Europe as a whole has never been very supportive of Poland. Many readers forget that World War II started over the breach of a Franco-British guarantee of Poland's integrity in 1939 when Hitler invaded the country. Reluctantly, the two guarantors went to war with Nazi Germany and eventually won, but Poland's dignity and freedom- the reason for the war in the first place- was never restored. This goes down as one of the bitterest betrayals in Polish history and for good reason: Poland was sacrificed by Churchill and Roosevelt in order to achieve greater aims, but these ultimately failed when the Soviet Union consolidated its hold in Eastern Europe. One day, the "Iron Curtain" which Churchill spoke so eloquently about will be seen as being partially closed by the misguided Western powers in 1944-45.

No matter; there were other failures in 1956, 1980 and 1989 to help the Poles, and ultimately they had to throw off the Soviet yoke by themselves. Being the first ones to gain partial democracy, Poland shot ahead of the pack in 1989 and set the stage for the more visual performance later that year of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Lech Walesa had shown courage ever since he led the first strikes in Gdansk as early as 1979, so by all logic Poland should be leading- and not trailing- in creating a united Europe in the center of the continent.

But this was not the case, and once Poland was free enough to do so, its political parties imploded over issues of who was a communist when and who betrayed whom. Just like the Liberum Veto of the 18th century, the country became ungovernable in the 1990's- but this time it was of the Poles' own doing. In this way, they had set the stage for the child stars Kaczynski to take power and show the country how to get nothing done but flush out a communist sympathizer.

This weekend marks the end of internal disputes and the beginning of a new era of integration. It's a new start, and the preliminary results suggest that the opposition parties will be so strong that not even the President- a Kaczynski- will be able to stop the reforms with a veto. It is a new 1989 for the Poles, and the end of the Kaczynski Liberum Veto has arrived.

Tracy Dove, editor of The Russia News Service, is a Professor of History and Dean of Summer Programs for the Lessing Institute. He also teaches history at the Anglo-American College in Prague.

See all previous articles by Tracy Dove here.