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German ‘potato’ jab angers Polish twin leaders

Incoming Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski called on the German government to punish a media outlet for calling his twin brother, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, a potato.
/ Source: Reuters

Incoming Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski urged the German government to take action against a German paper that called his twin brother Lech, the Polish president, a potato.

The term, seen in Polish culture as rather like calling the president a peasant, was used by the left-wing German daily Die Tageszeitung in June.

Kaczynski, speaking days before he is expected to take office, said relations between Poland and Germany would remain strained until the German government acted against the paper. He did not specify what kind of action he expected.

“It is up to our partners now to improve relations. We aren’t the ones who insulted someone,” Kaczynski was quoted as saying by the weekly Wprost paper.

“An insult to a head of state is a crime and there must be consequences.”

Puzzled by reaction
Germany has said it is not responsible for the article since it did not represent the opinion of all Germans and the government’s job was not to meddle with the free press.

But one foreign diplomat, declining to be named, said Germany was puzzled by the twins’ emotional reaction.

Other diplomats said Kaczynski’s hallmark all-or-nothing style could leave Poland marginalized and ridiculed, with the Kaczynskis increasingly seen abroad as being overly prickly.

Die Tageszeitung Monday published a list on its Web site of what it termed the two brothers’ “five best initiatives,” including ironic references to their attitude to press freedom and homosexuals.

Losing credibility?
The paper also referred to Polish Defense Minister Radek Sikorski’s comments in May comparing a German-Russian pipeline deal and a pact Nazi Germany made with the former Soviet Union.

Polish analysts said the attitude of the two brothers, who had little experience in foreign affairs before they won power last year, could leave Poland sidelined in the European Union.

“The Polish president is losing credibility by mixing foreign policy with the treatment of his own complexes and wounds,” the daily Gazeta Wyborcza said in an editorial.

Some analysts said Kaczynski’s reaction to the article was bordering on the ridiculous.

“An incident like that should never move to the center of our foreign policy,” said Eugeniusz Smolar, director of the Center for International Relations in Warsaw. “What Poland is asking of Germany is unacceptable.”