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Poland: Defamation lawsuit in Gdańsk between Wałęsa and Kaczyński
This Wednesday, September 26, the eyes of the Poles are focused on Gdańsk. In the famous port city of the north of the country opens a media and political process. Former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa must defend himself in a defamation case launched against him by Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ultra-conservative PiS party in power in Poland.
From our correspondent in Poland,
• What does Jarosław Kaczyński say to Lech Wałęsa ?
In 2016, the former Polish president accused Jarosław Kaczyński and his late brother, Lech Kaczyński, of causing the crash of the presidential plane in Smolensk in 2010. On board, 96 people; President Kaczyński and his wife, a minister, deputies and dignitaries. None survived the accident.
A board of inquiry found errors in the crew of the aircraft. But for Wałęsa, the leaders are the Kaczyński brothers ... They would have forced the pilots to land when the weather conditions were very bad.
However, Jarosław Kaczyński, as well as many other members of his party, the PiS, are convinced that the accident in Smolensk, Russia, is in fact an attack perpetrated by Moscow. Two diametrically opposed versions that are now facing the Gdańsk court.
• Hatred between two of the country's most prominent politicians
They know each other very well. They both worked here, in Gdańsk, at the shipyards. And they participated together in Solidarność in the great strikes of 1980 which later led to the fall of the communist regime. But from that time, Lech Wałęsa on one side, and the Kaczyński brothers on the other, have a very different vision for the future of the country.
The first wants to collaborate in good intelligence with the communists ... The second ones, they want to cut the bridges with the past. The entente cordiale is broken in 1991: Wałęsa, president of the Republic, turns of the government the two brothers. 25 years of hatred and reciprocal accusations follow.
Jarosław Kaczyński tries to break the image of Lech Wałęsa, reproaching him, documented, for having collaborated with the communist regime in the 1970s. He also had the curricula changed, to reduce the importance of Wałęsa in the big strikes at the Gdańsk shipyards.
Lech Wałęsa, for his part, strongly criticizes the ultra-conservative policy orchestrated by Kaczyński, and supports the judges of the Supreme Court, targeted by the ruling power.
Can reconciliation or at least one outstretched hand be considered ?
It was hoped for, and the Court demanded the obligatory presence of the protagonists. In a letter posted on his Facebook page, Lech Wałęsa apologized to Jarosław Kaczyński and his late brother ... But the leader of the party PiS, in power, sent a plea of inadmissibility.
And we learned later, Jarosław Kaczyński decided not to come to Gdańsk on Wednesday. As in May when he was summoned, Jarosław Kaczyński is again hospitalized. Officially for arthritis problems. But he was in Gdańsk last weekend for a meeting. Lech Wałęsa suspects him of wanting to avoid reunion.