- WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish
firebrand Andrzej Lepper, whose nationalist Self-Defence party tops popularity
rankings, has been quoted as saying he believes Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's
early policies were good.
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- "At the beginning of his activities, Hitler had
a really good programme," Lepper told the Zycie Warszawy newspaper.
"I don't know what happened to him later...who had such influence
over him that he moved towards genocide."
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- Lepper's growing popularity is part of a wider backlash
in future European Union members from central Europe against years of tough
market reforms and government sleaze.
-
- His nationalist, anti-establishment views also fit into
a wider phenomenon of support for far-right politicians in western Europe
such as Austria's Joerg Haider or France's Jean-Marie Le Pen, both of whom
scored electoral successes in the last decade.
-
- Haider also once praised Hitler's "enviable"
record in job creation.
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- Lepper's remarks are bound to stir controversy in Poland,
a country which Nazi Germany invaded in 1939, unleashing World War Two.
Five million Polish citizens, including over three million Jews, were killed
by the Nazis.
-
- Asked to confirm the remarks, Lepper said the newspaper
had manipulated his comments. "All I said concerning Hitler is that,
yes, he eliminated unemployment," Lepper told Reuters on Wednesday.
"Hitler was the biggest criminal and murderer in history."
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- The newspaper played a tape recording of the interview
to Reuters including the quoted remarks.
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- ONE IN THREE
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- Surveys show one in three Poles could vote for Lepper
in the next parliamentary elections, which are due next year but could
be brought forward as the current leftist coalition struggles to reconstruct
its government.
-
- Unpopular Prime Minister Leszek Miller will step down
on May 2, a day after Poland joins the EU. His designated successor Marek
Belka has yet to assemble a parliamentary majority.
-
- Some Polish commentators have drawn parallels between
Hitler's tactics on his way to power and Lepper's.
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- Like Hitler, who scorned Germany's feeble Weimar Republic,
Lepper uses fiery rhetoric to attack the mainstream parties and the shortcomings
of Poland's young democracy.
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- He opposes Poland's EU membership, wants more state intervention
in the economy and advocates strong presidential powers such as those enjoyed
by Russia's Vladimir Putin.
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- His popularity is fuelled by promises to slash the country's
high unemployment, running at about 20 percent, by launching wide-scale
public works.
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- Hitler launched huge infrastructure projects including
building Germany's autobahn network and the armaments industry after he
seized power in 1933.
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type=worldNews&storyID=493184§ion=news
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