Lech Kaczynski Biography

In October 2005, Lech Kaczynski became Poland's third elected president since the end of its Communist era. Kaczynski promised Poles he would abolish corruption in the government and restore the Polish republic's reputation on the world stage. A devout Roman Catholic, Kaczynski was pro-Poland and anti-European Union and fought to protect his country's conservative values. In 2008, he staunchly opposed the EU's Lisbon Treaty-prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation-for fear that it would become Polish law. President Kaczynski died at age 60 in a plane crash in western Russia.