Widening the gap

For the government, "EU affairs are a distant question," Swieboda told  EUObserver.com.

But later that week President Lech Kaczyński proved him wrong with a sudden dive into the EU arena by voicing support for re-instituting the death penalty in the Union. The statements have put Poland front and center on the EU's political agenda - but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than engaging the bloc, the President's proposal has widened the gap between Warsaw and Brussels.

As Swieboda might have predicted, the uproar had its origins in domestic politics. The right-wing League of Polish Families (LPR), realizing it has negligible support in the country heading towards  autumn's local elections, decided to set off a media storm by pledging a referendum on the death penalty on this fall's ballot.

President Kaczyński may be playing LPR's game because he fears a breakup of the coalition, or he may genuinely believe the EU needs to reinstate the death penalty. Either way, he knows full well that his suggestion flies in the face of Poland's EU accession treaty, and that with such fierce opposition in Europe, the chances for the success of his proposal would be next to nil. So he must also have known his words would only drive the EU and Poland farther apart.

Though it is doubtful that this will have a negative effect on Poland's robust economic growth in the short term, isolating Poland from Europe will certainly not help the country when it comes to negotiating future aid packages or pleading with the EU for an additional three years to get its budget deficit in order, as it did last week. Moreover, at a time when Poland needs to improve its reputation abroad, the President's proposal gives foreigners yet another reason to consider Poland backward and reactionary. Such stereotypes do not serve Poland's interests, either internationally or domestically.