In a book released prior to the 9 October election entitled Poland of our Dreams, Kaczynski, who leads the Law and Justice (PiS) opposition party stated that Merkel had not got into power “by pure chance,” and insinuated that she had been shoe-horned into her job by veterans of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.
He also wrote that Germany was building a new “imperialism” by cementing “an axis with Moscow”.
After the book was published, the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper headlined an article “The Bad Chancellor,” in which the daily comments that Jaroslaw Kaczynski often brings Germany into his politics ahead of an election, and that Merkel’s implied ‘Stasi connection’ is no different in this respect.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said that Kaczynski “should apologise” for the contents of his book and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski appealed to members of the Law and Justice party “not to ruin Polish-German relations.”
As Kaczynski reflected in an interview published on Wednesday in the Rzeczpospolita daily, however, this “mistake” resulted in a “three-day action by the media” which distracted from his party's election campaign.
Kaczynski added that in general, adverse media had been a key element in his party's failure to win the election, noting that the winning party, Civic Platform had “exceptionally strong” backing in the press.
However, Kaczynski cited a vivid campaign video by Civic Platform as causing the most damage to his party's bid for power.
“The reasons for our loss are straightforward: a very successful campaign video by the Civic Platform,” he stated.
The video in question, entitled “They are going to vote, and you?” showed footage of conservative demonstrators in violent altercations, inter-cut with shots of football hooligans rioting.
Kaczynski also tried to play down talks of a split within his party focused around MEP Zbigniew Ziobro, seen as a possible challenger to his leadership.
The PiS leader said that “nobody has any intention” of removing Ziobro from the party, and that a group of supposed splitters was “too small” to found a new party. (nh/pg)