The Kaczyńskis' fortress of cards

"In our press they're writing terrible things about you." For them, Poland is associated with "ignorance," "backwardness," "racism and homophobia," "quarrels with neighbours," and "the two brothers' authoritarian government." I understand and share their anxieties, but I usually reply: "Don't worry, this is only a minor malfunction."

Miss No Comment

However, it is a malfunction and there's no denying it. Even Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, the former Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, tore to shreds Anna Fotyga, the head of Polish diplomacy and a confidante of the Kaczynski brothers. The distinguished, 85-year-old professor said straight out that the next Minister of Foreign Affairs will surely be better than her since, "it is difficult to imagine anyone worse."

Among journalists, Anna Fotyga is known as "Miss No Comment," because very often she refuses to make a statement and doesn't reply to questions put to her. She has nearly become a living icon of the foreign policy of the twins - President Lech Kaczyński and Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński. One has the impression that all three of them have shut themselves away in a mighty fortress. From there, without contact with the real world, they are playing a secretive, international strategic game based on 19th-century prejudices and phobias. Sometimes one suspects that their foreign policy is solely serving the twins to maintain their popularity among the part of the Polish electorate which is easily swayed by nationalist and confrontational rhetoric.

Tragic position

The effect of one year of such games is Poland's tragic position in the world. The good relations with Germany, which were built after 1989, lie in ruins. As if things weren't bad enough, in December Minister Fotyga appointed Mariusz Muszyński as an expert on relations with Germany. Muszyński is heavily criticized by the Polish opposition for having a too uncompromising and critical attitude towards Berlin.

The second open front is Russia, which still maintains an embargo on food exports from Poland. The Polish opposition is united in the view that an understanding with Russia should be reached through strengthening the joint EU policy towards Moscow. However, the Kaczyński brothers and Minister Fotyga don't intend to take that route, because they are opposed to increasing European integration. So they're alone in their fortress.

On the world stage Poland has ceased to exist. The most important people in the Polish state have not made an appearance at the most significant international meetings - at the Davos Summit, the Munich Conference or at the meeting of the leaders of the Weimar Triangle.

Temporary trouble

Whence then comes my conviction that this an ordinary, temporary malfunction? Because the Kaczyńskis' fortress is a house of cards. Irrespective of who occupies the top positions , our country is and will remain a democratic state. Even 10 Kaczyński brothers would be unable to reverse the social and economic mechanisms already in existence. The number of investments in Poland continues to grow; both Polish and foreign employers still find inexpensive and very well qualified employees here. Consumers in Poland are more content and optimistic than in any member state of the European Union, while the European Commission predicts that this year's economic growth in Poland will reach at least six percent.

Poland has an independent media, which enjoys greater credibility than the coalition-controlled public television. Several thousand NGOs are already in existence, many of which openly and boldly criticize the authorities. The most important thing is that voters are changing their minds. If elections were to be held now, there would not be a Kaczyński government. Self-defense - their populist ally - would not even get into parliament. The second coalition member, the League of Polish Families - a party of nationalist and Catholic orientation - today has less support that the Women's Party (Partia Kobiet) which was founded two months ago, and which is led by a controversial author of somewhat erotic fiction.

Highly regarded Polish authorities are already trying to repair the malfunction of foreign policy at an international level. In the opposition groups in parliament there are many of these authorities, and soon they will once again be the official partners of foreign governments.

Joanna Wóycicka has been a commentator on Polish foreign policy since 1991. She is the former head of the foreign section of the Życie Warszawy and Życie newspapers and the former head of the foreign department at the Polish Press Agency (PAP)