Sarkozy outburst rings bells in Poland

   WARSAW, Feb 26, 2008 – French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s slanging
match with a man who refused to shake his hand rings bells for Poles, whose
own leader has not been allowed to forget how he once insulted a voter.
   Sarkozy’s "Get lost, you stupid bastard" outburst Saturday at a Paris
agriculture show was a flashback to Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s sharp
street exchange in 2002.
   And like Sarkozy, Kaczynski was also exposed on the Internet, with his
remarks proving an enduring hit among Polish Web surfers.
   Kaczynski had yet to become president when he was caught out in November
2002 while campaigning to be mayor of Warsaw.
   He was jeered by a passer-by who accused politicians of being "rats" for
turning a blind eye to the problems of ordinary Poles.
   "Spieprzaj dziadu," Kaczynski responded — an insult which translates as
"Piss off, you old git!"
   The exchange was reported in Polish newspapers and captured on camera —
allowing the footage to haunt Kaczynski ever since, thanks to Internet
video-sharing sites.
   Poland’s opposition parties regularly resurrected the phrase to attack the
conservative-nationalist Kaczynski, and notably to undermine the family-values
image of his Law and Justice party, which was in power from 2005 until it lost
a snap election last October.
   The anti-Kaczynski camp created a Web site, www.spieprzajdziadu.pl, and
thousands of Poles began sporting rubber wristbands marked with the phrase.
   The liberal Civic Platform used footage of Kaczynski’s outburst in its
election campaign last year, when it beat Law and Justice and ousted Jaroslaw
Kaczynski, the president’s identical twin, from the job of premier.

AFP