Posted on 05/05/2006 10:50:08 AM PDT by lizol
Polish populist to press for withdrawal from Iraq
Fri 5 May 2006 6:37 AM ET
WARSAW, May 5 (Reuters) - Poland's firebrand populist Andrzej Lepper, set to join the government on Friday, said his Self-Defence party would oppose an extension of the country's military presence in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
In December, the ruling conservatives and President Lech Kaczynski agreed with Washington to keep troops in Iraq until the end of 2006 to maintain the multinational character of the U.S.-led military force in the Gulf state.
"We want to withdraw our troops from Iraq and we will try to convince the president," Lepper told Reuters hours before he was sworn in.
Lepper will become deputy prime minister in charge of agriculture as part of a coalition deal between the right, the nationalists and his Self-Defence party, a fringe group which gained fame for staging anti-EU and anti-reform protests.
"The coalition agreement says nothing about Iraq. We are still against our military presence there and if it comes to a vote in parliament, we will oppose (extending the stay)," he said.
The government has vowed that joint rule with Self-Defence and the nationalists, who also oppose Poland's military presence in Iraq, would not change Poland's foreign policy.
Poland has about 900 troops in Iraq. They remain mostly inside their base and train Iraqi forces.
Surveys have consistently shown most Poles are against the Iraq mission.
There goes the poles, joining the girlimen Spaniards. EU is so womanized they cannot hold their water, we here should look to this as a sign
and US is not?
Is this a sign that they will cozy up to the Russians?
It was stunning to me to hear the vile things Ruskies had to say about Poland and the Polish in l990 when we were there. I couldn't imagine why they so enjoyed hating the Poles. My only guess was that they are too anglo in character.
They will not run Polish foreign policy. It is not their priority, beside the ruling conservatives like it too much to give it away.
It was stunning to me to hear the vile things Ruskies had to say about Poland and the Polish in l990 when we were there. I couldn't imagine why they so enjoyed hating the Poles. My only guess was that they are too anglo in character.
Those English speaking Russians whom I need to deal with were not anti-Polish. They always look first wherever I’m not anti-Russian and when they realize that I’m not so bad as one should expect, civilized discussion is possible (even with quite nationalist minded). I don’t know how the rest of uneducated “masses”…. But politically they are almost all ignorant and we will NEVER agree on this issue.
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