Twins preside over Poland’s political circus

WARSAW – What do you get when two pudgy identical twins who gained fame as impish child actors become president and prime minister of Poland? A foolproof recipe for political vaudeville.

Ever since Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski swept to power last year, Poland’s political scene has become so loony that some observers are hailing a golden age of political entertainment. There are serious consequences to all of the wackiness: The ruling coalition collapsed recently due to increasingly bizarre internal rows, opening the way for general elections as early as October.Poles don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the antics of their political class.In the past 18 months, parliament held a special Mass to pray for rain during a drought; Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski acknowledged he has no bank account because he deposits his money with his mother; and a ruling party official called for investigating TV children’s show “Teletubbies” because the character Tinky Winky appeared to be gay.So few people batted an eyelid when two Polish Cabinet ministers recently appeared at a news conference carrying several stuffed toy animals as props for a major political announcement.To Poles, it was just one more episode in a political soap opera that has kept them entertained since the rise of the diminutive Kaczynskis, who have alarmed and baffled outsiders with their rants about public morals and the evils of the European Union.”Since the last elections and the rise to power of the current coalition, political humour has been unexpectedly resurrected,” the Polish edition of Newsweek wrote recently.Indeed, some observers say the Kaczynskis and their allies have nourished a culture of political humour more vibrant than at any time since the dysfunctional days of communism, when satire flourished as an outlet for political frustration.Humorous TV skits, political cabaret, blogs and cartoons are all going strong, while political jokes are being e-mailed around with a fervour that might alarm bosses concerned about worker productivity.The trend is captured by a “Life just surpasses my capabilities as a satirist – very many of the things that have happened in Poland in recent years could not have been thought up by the best satirists,” said cartoonist Szczepan Sadurski.In May, Jaroslaw Kaczynski – whose Law and Justice party won office in 2005 pledging to fight corruption – revealed that he has no bank account because he’s afraid someone might deposit money into his account without his knowledge.So instead he deposits his money with his mother, with whom he still lives.The prime minister’s effort last year to shore up his government by bringing two unpredictable populist parties into a now-defunct coalition has also added to the political farce.Jokes have centred around the two parties’ eccentric leaders: Roman Giertych, head of the ultra-Catholic League of Polish Families, and Andrzej Lepper, a pig farmer who heads the nationalist Self-Defence party.Several figures in Giertych’s entourage also caught headlines.A member of his party, Ewa Sowinska, the ombudsman for children’s rights, said in May that she would ask psychologists to look into whether the TV children’s show “Teletubbies” might have “hidden homosexual undertones” since the character Tinky Winky appears to be male yet carries a red ladies’ handbag.Nampa-APThere are serious consequences to all of the wackiness: The ruling coalition collapsed recently due to increasingly bizarre internal rows, opening the way for general elections as early as October.Poles don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the antics of their political class.In the past 18 months, parliament held a special Mass to pray for rain during a drought; Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski acknowledged he has no bank account because he deposits his money with his mother; and a ruling party official called for investigating TV children’s show “Teletubbies” because the character Tinky Winky appeared to be gay.So few people batted an eyelid when two Polish Cabinet ministers recently appeared at a news conference carrying several stuffed toy animals as props for a major political announcement.To Poles, it was just one more episode in a political soap opera that has kept them entertained since the rise of the diminutive Kaczynskis, who have alarmed and baffled outsiders with their rants about public morals and the evils of the European Union.”Since the last elections and the rise to power of the current coalition, political humour has been unexpectedly resurrected,” the Polish edition of Newsweek wrote recently.Indeed, some observers say the Kaczynskis and their allies have nourished a culture of political humour more vibrant than at any time since the dysfunctional days of communism, when satire flourished as an outlet for political frustration.Humorous TV skits, political cabaret, blogs and cartoons are all going strong, while political jokes are being e-mailed around with a fervour that might alarm bosses concerned about worker productivity.The trend is captured by a “Life just surpasses my capabilities as a satirist – very many of the things that have happened in Poland in recent years could not have been thought up by the best satirists,” said cartoonist Szczepan Sadurski.In May, Jaroslaw Kaczynski – whose Law and Justice party won office in 2005 pledging to fight corruption – revealed that he has no bank account because he’s afraid someone might deposit money into his account without his knowledge.So instead he deposits his money with his mother, with whom he still lives.The prime minister’s effort last year to shore up his government by bringing two unpredictable populist parties into a now-defunct coalition has also added to the political farce.Jokes have centred around the two parties’ eccentric leaders: Roman Giertych, head of the ultra-Catholic League of Polish Families, and Andrzej Lepper, a pig farmer who heads the nationalist Self-Defence party.Several figures in Giertych’s entourage also caught headlines.A member of his party, Ewa Sowinska, the ombudsman for children’s rights, said in May that she would ask psychologists to look into whether the TV children’s show “Teletubbies” might have “hidden homosexual undertones” since the character Tinky Winky appears to be male yet carries a red ladies’ handbag.Nampa-AP