Nov 13, 2008

Racism in Poland: part III

Am I nuts to start to see a connection between Kaczynski's painful stumbling in congratulating Obama and all of these high profile reports of racism in Poland?

Here's the latest:

Ryszard Czarnecki, deputy in European Parliament and member of the Kaczynskis' Law and Justice (PiS) party, wrote in his blog that Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski (of Civic Platform, or PO) has been enjoying telling this joke in the last couple of months:

"Barack Obama has Polish roots: his grandfather supposedly ate a Polish missionary."

Of course, Sikorski denies this and denies having talked to Czarnecki in months. Considering the animosity between PiS and PO, and PiS's love of causing scandals based on rumors, it would be surprising if Sikorski really said this. But this many high-profile racist "gaffes" before Obama even takes office - are they just getting the jokes out of their system? Or will Poles (particularly PiS and its supporters) really have trouble working closely with the US without giggling?

1 comment:

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

I don't know, you tell us, is Radek the kind of guy to say that?