The next (probably) British PM, his nutjob Polish pal & Rahm's (probably) least favourite photo

[Jackeens]

British Conservative leader David Cameron is in a bit of bother over his alliance with Polish politician Michal Kaminski.

Extracts from a UK Independent report:

Cameron...is fighting a growing row over accusations concerning the anti-Semitic past of Mr Kaminski, the man who is now the Tory leader's greatest ally in Europe....Last week, Foreign Secretary David Miliband attacked the Tories for aligning themselves with Mr Kaminski and a Latvian party accused of glorifying Nazism....Jewish leaders in Britain and Poland have expressed concern about Mr Kaminski's dubious past, particularly the active part he played in a campaign to oppose a Polish apology for a massacre of Jews during the Second World War.

...Mr Cameron's alliance with Mr Kaminski's Polish Law and Justice (PiS) Party, the Latvian For Fatherland and Freedom Party and the Czech ODS Party was forged out of necessity. In 2005, when running for the leadership, he promised to leave the mainstream European People's Party of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy in exchange for support from Eurosceptic Tory MPs whose votes were crucial in clinching his victory. Mr Kaminski is now the head of the new alliance, European Conservatives and Reformists.

But Mr Cameron has faced widespread alarm at revelations that the PiS has campaigned against gay rights, and that his Latvian allies participate in an annual event commemorating the Latvian Waffen SS. Most damaging is the revelation that Mr Kaminski of the PiS campaigned against an apology for Jedwabne, a horrific atrocity perpetrated in July 1941, when 1,600 Jews were rounded up and burnt alive.

When questioned about his role in the campaign earlier this year, Mr Kaminski at first denied taking part. He changed tack after it emerged from an interview with Nasza Polska, a Polish newspaper, that he had said Poland should apologise only if "someone from the Jewish side will apologise for what the Jews did during the Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1941".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/with-friends-like-these-will-it-end-in-tears-1797466.html


And from the Times:

In 1999 Kaminski attracted headlines in Poland when, as an MP, he travelled to London to pay homage to General Augusto Pinochet. As a young man he not only associated with the far-right National Revival of Poland but also a hardline Catholic organisation, the Christian-National Union. He is understood to remain an anti-abortionist and opposed to gay rights. While he was spin-doctor for Mr Kaczynski, the President ran a campaign against the Lisbon Treaty which warned that it would force deeply conservative Poland to accept gay marriages under the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6715542.ece


But to prove he's not anti-Semitic Kaminski has posted this photo on his website :eyes:



(Michal Kaminski decorates Rahm Emanuel with the Polish Cross of Merit in 2008 (when Emanuel was a congressman and he was a Polish minister).


I wish these people would be more careful about the company they keep. Behave - I didn't mean they should avoid having photos taken with Rahm.