Ever the statesman
Former president Aleksander Kwaniewski has publicly refuted rumors that he is to form a new party, claiming the political scene has no room for such an entity. The leftist former leader was rumored to have been planning to found a party with Andrzej Olechowski, a founding member of the right-wing Civic Platform.
Kwaniewski, currently under contract with Georgetown University in Washington DC, also said he did not plan to return to a central role on the political stage. "I have got lectures, seminars and meetings in Europe and the US," he said. He indicated that when his tenure is up, he will return to Poland and support the leftist faction.
The former president remains a potent figure in Polish politics. Last week he reproved the current President and Prime Minister for damaging the country's international reputation.
"Our international position is weakening sharply," he told the weekly magazine Polityka. "What's happening in Polish foreign policy, for which the President is largely responsible, is a weakening of our position and it is of our own making," he lamented.
Among other things, Kwaniewski criticized the Kaczyńskis for their handling of the row over the Russian meat ban.
"Disagreeing with the Russian [ban] was right, but using Poland's veto was not," he said. "We should have stood for our interests, while keeping in mind that we have to reach compromises in the end. Our biggest weakness was a lack of diplomacy."
During his tenure as president, Kwaniewski gained an international reputation as a skilled diplomat, helping to mediate the 2004 electoral standoff in Ukraine and leading Poland into NATO and the EU. (Reuters)
