WARSAW, Poland — Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a leading candidate in Poland’s presidential election, interrupted the last day of campaigning today to visit the grave of his identical twin brother — the leader whose death in a plane crash forced the early vote.
The visit came on his and his brother Lech’s 61st birthday, and two days before Poles vote for a new president on Sunday.
Kaczynski, dressed in black and carrying red and white roses, descended into the crypt of Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral, where he placed the flowers at the honey-hued sarcophagus holding his brother and his sister-in-law, Maria. The candidate was joined by Marta, his niece and the first couple’s daughter.
Marta, 30, carried a note with a red heart drawn by one of her young daughters. “For Grandpa Leszek,” it said, using the late president’s nickname.
The president and first lady were among 96 people killed in a plane crash April 10 in western Russia. The delegation, which included many high-ranking civilian and military leaders, was en route to a memorial service for Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces 70 years ago.
Kaczynski’s visit to his brother’s grave was strictly private and not linked to the campaign, said Elzbieta Jakubiak, a lawmaker with Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party and one of his top political allies.
“It’s a family commemoration,” Jakubiak was quoted as saying by the news agency PAP. “We have no influence over the fact that June 18 falls during the campaign and that it’s (Kaczynski’s) first birthday without his brother.”
The day before, the other main presidential candidate, Bronislaw Komorowski, also paid his respects at the tomb.
Soon after his brother’s death, Jaroslaw decided to run in his place, saying he wanted to fulfill the brothers’ shared political mission of fighting crime and corruption, harnessing a strong state to protect the poor and other vulnerable Poles, and upholding Roman Catholic values.
But the latest opinion polls before Sunday’s election show that Kaczynski faces an uphill battle in defeating Komorowski, the pro-business and pro-European parliament speaker and acting president. There are eight other candidates, but none has significant support.
A PBS DGA poll published by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily on Friday predicted that Kaczynski will win 33 percent of the vote Sunday, with Komorowski taking 51 percent — enough for an outright victory.
However, according to a GfK Polonia poll for the Rzeczpospolita daily, Kaczynski will win 31 percent of the vote and Komorowski 42 percent.
If no candidate reaches 50 percent, the two top contenders will be in a runoff on July 4.
The PBS DGA poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, while the GfK Polonia poll gave a margin of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Today was the last day of campaigning, with a period of so-called “election quiet” imposed from midnight to 8 p.m. on Sunday, when voting stations close and the first exit polls are expected.
Both Komorowski and Kaczynski were ending their campaigns today in Gdansk, the cradle of the anti-communist Solidarity movement, which played a key role in defeating communism. Both men were activists in Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
