Twin brothers Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski first became famous as thirteen-year-old boys throughout Poland in 1962, showing themselves in the leading roles of a children's fairy tale feature film. The eldest of the brothers is Yaroslav.

Biography

The brothers were born in the Polish capital on June 18, 1949. Their father, Raimund Kaczynski, a war veteran, a former Home Army officer, worked as an engineer. Jadwiga's mother is a philologist. Both parents actively participated in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

The brothers graduated from school together and continued their studies at the Faculty of Law and Management in

Jaroslaw Kaczynski began his scientific career in 1971. Achieved a doctorate in jurisprudence. His places of work were the Institute of Science and Higher Education Policy and the Bialystok branch of the University of Warsaw.

In the mid-seventies, the twin brothers began to engage in dissident activities, becoming members of the Committee for the Protection of Workers. 1980 - participants of the first Solidarity congress.

When a state of emergency was introduced in the state (1981), only Lech was arrested, since they considered it a typo that there were two people on the arrest lists with the same last name and date of birth.

Somewhat later, Jaroslaw Kaczynski joined the leadership of the Solidarity trade union. In the 80s he was a member of the Polish branch of the Helsinki Committee. In 1989-90, he was editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Solidarity.

Deputy activity

At the end of 1989, Yaroslav was elected a member of the Senate, nominated by the Civil Parliamentary Party. He was entrusted with representing the trade union during negotiations during the formation of government structures headed by T. Mazowiecki.

In 1990-92, the head of the presidential office of L. Walesa was Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The party "Agreement of Centrist Forces" was founded by him in 1990. He was its leader for eight years, and was quite active.

In 1991-1993, 1997-2001 and 2001-2005, this Polish politician was nominated to the Sejm.

Creating a new batch

In the spring of 2001, the Kaczynskis organized a new conservative party, headed by Lech. The party was named "Law and Justice". In the parliamentary elections six months after its creation, this party received nine and a half percent of the votes. The party faction in the Sejm was headed by Yaroslav.

Since 2003, after the election of Lech Kaczynski as mayor of Warsaw, his brother led the party. In September of the same year, the Law and Justice party gained almost 27 percent in the parliamentary elections, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski was re-elected to the Sejm.

In order not to create obstacles for his brother Lech on the eve of the presidential elections, Yaroslav had to resign from the post of head of the government cabinet. K. Martsinkevich was appointed to this post.

- President of Poland

On November 23, 2005, they chose Lech, who first of all expressed his gratitude to his brother. He informed the "Mr. Chairman of the Party" that the "task" had been completed - the presidency had been "successfully won."

On July 14, 2006, Yaroslav was appointed prime minister.

Despite the fact that the brothers were Catholic conservatives, according to some researchers, the Prime Minister of Poland adhered to a more right-wing worldview than his brother.

Actions in Polish foreign policy during the leadership of the brothers led to some tension with the European Union, rapprochement with the United States of America and a deterioration in relations with Russia.

Political crisis

In the summer of 2007, Poland found itself in a situation where Jaroslaw Kaczynski insisted that the president remove from office A. Lepper, who was Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and head of the Self-Defense party, which was part of the government coalition as a junior partner.

The reason for the resignation was the facts of Lepper's involvement in a corruption scandal, but Lepper himself categorically denied this. According to him, Self-Defense should remain in the government coalition, but the scandalous situation was developing with increasing force.

In some means mass media Information has emerged that the Deputy Prime Minister was dismissed due to deliberate provocative actions organized by the Prime Minister.

In the early parliamentary elections in the fall of 2007, the Law and Justice party received a little more than 32 percent, leaving behind the Civic Platform, which was headed on November 5, 2007. J. Kaczynski left the post of prime minister.

Tragedy, Katyn, memorial

On April 10, 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski with his wife Maria and a number of high-ranking Polish politicians, military, religious and public figures flew on the presidential airliner Tu-154M flight PLF101 from Warsaw to Smolensk. While landing at the Smolensk-Severny airfield in heavy fog, the plane crashed into trees, fell and broke into pieces.

This terrible plane crash near Smolensk claimed 96 lives. The investigation into the causes of the tragedy was carried out by Russian and Polish specialists, as well as an international commission.

The passengers of the crashed plane were a Polish delegation led by the country's president, who was making a private visit to a mourning event in Katyn. A memorial in memory of the execution of Polish army officers was erected there in honor of the seventieth anniversary of this mourning date.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski was not among the dead passengers, as he abandoned the flight due to his mother's illness.

Results of the investigation into the tragic accident

During the investigation, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) established that until the airliner collided with trees, the functioning of all systems occurred in normal mode. The fog caused poor visibility, which was lower than allowed during landing. Information about this was sent to the flight crew.

IAC concluded that the crash occurred due to improper actions of the airliner crew members and the exertion of psychological pressure on them.

The State Aviation Commission of the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is involved in the investigation of aviation accidents, recognized the error of the pilots as the cause of the tragedy, while problems with insufficient air navigation support for the flight by dispatchers at the Smolensk-Severny airport and shortcomings in the technical support of the airfield were identified as important factors in the accident.

Election of a new president

06/20/2010 Poland elected a new head of state.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski received 36.74 percent of the vote in this election, and his main opponent, Speaker of the Polish Sejm Bronislaw Komorowski, received 41.22 percent. For the final selection, the next round was organized on July 4, 2010. On it, Komorowski, the candidate from the Civic Platform, won 53 percent of the vote.

The 2011 parliamentary elections did not end entirely successfully for Kaczynski’s party. With just under 30 percent of the vote, she was in second place. It entered the Sejm with 158 seats.

During the 2015 presidential election, Kaczynski supported a fellow party member who won with 53 percent of the vote.

On June 20, 2015, during the party conference, J. Kaczynski nominated Beata Szydlo for the post of prime minister for the autumn election campaign.

Views of J. Kaczynski

When his brother tragically died in a plane crash in 2010, Jaroslaw Kaczynski spoke about Russia as follows. First he acknowledged the fact that Russian authorities are investigating the cause of the crash of the presidential airliner near Smolensk in cooperation with the Poles.

However, immediately after the elections, there was a sharp change in his position. He began to make hints that the Russian side was hiding the true causes of the accident, he even called on the United States of America to investigate this matter.

The Russian politician sees in the statements of J. Kaczynski only the political situation. To maintain a certain degree of passion, far-right politicians always try to create an atmosphere of some tension. They are constantly trying to find more and more traumatic factors. They are trying to use even such a grave tragedy to rally their supporters to mobilize the far right political views, says Stankevich.

Kaczynski has repeatedly made statements that the whole truth about the circumstances of the Smolensk tragedy should be found out and published on the pages of books and textbooks.

According to him, Poles must know the truth in order to draw appropriate conclusions. The memory of the tragedy, according to the politician, should be immortalized by any means, for example, in the name of a street or square, or by installing a monument next to the presidential palace.

One of these speeches by Jaroslaw Kaczynski at the site of the possible erection of a monument to the victims of the tragedy attracted a huge number of supporters.

Kaczynski's latest remarks

In June 2016, the leader of the ruling party could be heard declaring that republican Polish sovereignty needed protection. This is exactly what he said while speaking in Warsaw.

According to him, there is constant interference in Polish internal affairs; the country becomes an object of pressure when resolving issues that directly affect the life of every citizen of the country.

“Poland,” says J. Kaczynski, “should join various unions, seek various compromise solutions, but at the same time its sovereignty should remain unshakable. Poland should not be a supplier of labor for those who are richer.”

Since June 2016, checks of Russian citizens visiting Poland have been significantly strengthened at customs posts on the border between Russia and Poland. This contributed to the emergence of queues at border checkpoints.

Kaczynski is an opponent of Poland's entry into the euro zone, but he is a supporter of strengthening the NATO bloc on the European continent.

Many expect him to worsen relations with Germany and the European Union in general.

The initiatives of Jaroslaw Kaczynski involve the deployment of American troops on Polish territory.

Personal life

Jaroslaw Kaczynski is not married. His place of residence has always been the town of Żoliborze, where he lived with his mother, who died on January 17, 2013.

Prime Minister of Poland (2006-2007), Chairman of the conservative Law and Justice Party since 2003. Twin brother of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in April 2010.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski was born on June 18, 1949 in Warsaw, 45 seconds (according to other sources - 45 minutes) earlier than his twin brother Lech. In 1962, Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski gained fame in Poland by playing the main roles in the children's film "O dwoch takich, co ukradli ksiezyc" (O dwoch takich, co ukradli ksiezyc). The brothers studied at school together and graduated together from the Faculty of Law and Management at the University of Warsaw. In 1971, Yaroslav began his scientific career. He has academic degree Doctor of Law. Worked at the Institute for Science Policy and higher education, as well as in the Bialystok branch of the University of Warsaw.

Since the mid-1970s, the brothers took part in the activities of Polish dissidents and were members of the Committee for the Defense of Workers (Komitet Obrony Robotnikow). In 1980, they took part in the first congress of the Solidarity trade union (NSZZ "Solidarnosc"), and in 1981, when a state of emergency was introduced in the country, only Lech was arrested: the presence of two people with the same surnames and date of birth on the list of persons subject to arrest supposedly mistaken for a typo. Later Yaroslav was a consultant and member governing bodies"Solidarity". In the 1980s he was a member of the Polish Helsinki Committee. From 1989 to 1990, he was the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper "Solidarity" - Tygodnik Solidarnosc.

In 1989, Jaroslaw Kaczynski was elected to the Senate from the Citizens' Parliamentary Party (Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny). Represented Solidarity in negotiations to form a government led by Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He headed the office of President Lech Walesa from 1990 to 1992. In 1990 he founded the party "Agreement of Centrist Forces" (Porozumienie Centrum), and led it until 1998. He was a member of the Sejm from 1991 to 1993, from 1997 to 2001 and from 2001 to 2005.

In April 2001, the Kaczynski brothers created the conservative Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, PiS), with Lech Kaczynski becoming its chairman. In September of the same year, the party received 9.5 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski led its faction in the Sejm.

In 2003, Jaroslaw Kaczynski became chairman of PiS, succeeding his brother, who was elected mayor of Warsaw. On September 25, the PiS party won the parliamentary elections with 26.99 percent of the vote, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski was re-elected to the Sejm. In order not to interfere with the success of his brother Lech in the upcoming presidential elections, Jarosław refused the post of head of government, which was eventually taken by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

On October 23, 2005, Lech Kaczynski won the presidential election. First of all, he thanked his brother for his help, reporting to “Mr. Chairman of the Party” about the successfully completed task of winning the presidency. Less than a year later, on July 14, 2006, the president appointed his brother as prime minister.

Researchers note that Yaroslav holds more right-wing views than his brother, despite the fact that both of them are Catholic conservatives. In foreign policy The Kaczynski leadership was marked by tensions with Poland's partners in European Union, an even greater rapprochement with the United States and a deterioration in Polish-Russian relations: for example, in November 2006, Poland successfully used its veto power to prevent the start of negotiations on cooperation between Russia and the EU.

In June 2007, a political crisis began in Poland. At the insistence of the head of government, the president dismissed the deputy prime minister, minister Agriculture Andrzej Lepper, head of the Samoobrona party, a junior partner in the government coalition. The resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister was motivated by his involvement in corruption schemes, which Lepper himself categorically denied. Lepper announced that Self-Defense would not leave the coalition, but the scandal continued to gain momentum: reports were published in the press that the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister was the result of a deliberate provocation on the part of Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

In October 2007, early parliamentary elections were held in Poland, in which PiS won 32.11 percent of the vote and lost to the Civic Platform led by Donald Tusk. According to experts, the latter will replace Jaroslaw Kaczynski as the country's prime minister. On November 5, 2007, Kaczynski resigned as prime minister.

On April 10, 2010, Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash near Smolensk. On April 26, Jarosław Kaczyński was nominated by PiS as a candidate for the early elections for the presidency.

Speaker of the Sejm of Poland, candidate from the ruling Civic Platform party Bronislaw Komorowski and leader of the Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski - according to the results of processing 94.3% of ballots, the result is 4.5%, Chairman of the State Election Commission of Poland (SEC) Stefan told reporters Yavorsky.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski was born on June 18, 1949 in Warsaw, slightly earlier than his twin brother Lech. In 1962, Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski gained fame in Poland by playing the main roles in the children's film "O dwoch takich, co ukradli ksiezyc" (O dwoch takich, co ukradli ksiezyc). The brothers studied at school together and graduated together from the Faculty of Law and Management at the University of Warsaw.

In 1971, Yaroslav began his scientific career. He has a doctorate in jurisprudence. He worked at the Institute of Science and Higher Education Policy, as well as at the Bialystok branch of the University of Warsaw.

Since the mid-1970s, the brothers took part in the activities of Polish dissidents and were members of the Workers' Defense Committee. In 1980, they took part in the first congress of the Solidarity trade union, and in 1981, when a state of emergency was introduced in the country, only Lech was arrested: the presence of two people with the same surnames and date of birth in the list of persons subject to arrest was allegedly mistaken for a typo. Later, Yaroslav was a consultant and member of the governing bodies of Solidarity. In the 1980s he was a member of the Polish Helsinki Committee. From 1989 to 1990, he was editor-in-chief of the weekly Solidarity newspaper - Tygodnik Solidarnosc.

In 1989, Jaroslaw Kaczynski was elected to the Senate from the Citizens' Parliamentary Party (Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny). Represented Solidarity in negotiations to form a government led by Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He headed the office of President Lech Walesa from 1990 to 1992. In 1990, he founded the “Agreement of Centrist Forces” party and led it until 1998.

He was a member of the Sejm from 1991 to 1993, from 1997 to 2001 and from 2001 to 2005.

In April 2001, the Kaczynski brothers created the conservative Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, PiS), with Lech Kaczynski becoming its chairman. In September of the same year, the party received 9.5 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski led its faction in the Sejm.

In 2003, Jaroslaw Kaczynski became party chairman, replacing his brother, who was elected mayor of Warsaw. On September 25, the Law and Justice party won the parliamentary elections with 26.99 percent of the vote, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski was re-elected to the Sejm. In order not to interfere with the success of his brother Lech in the upcoming presidential elections, Jarosław refused the post of head of government, which was eventually taken by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

On October 23, 2005, Lech Kaczynski won the presidential election. First of all, he thanked his brother for his help, reporting to “Mr. Chairman of the Party” about the successfully completed task of winning the presidency. On July 14, 2006, the president appointed his brother as prime minister.

Researchers noted that Yaroslav holds more right-wing views than his brother, despite the fact that both of them are Catholic conservatives. In foreign policy, the Kaczynski leadership was marked by tensions with Poland's partners in the European Union, even greater rapprochement with the United States and a deterioration in Polish-Russian relations: for example, in November 2006, Poland successfully used its veto power to prevent the start of negotiations on cooperation between Russia and the EU.

In June 2007, a political crisis began in Poland. At the insistence of the head of government, the president dismissed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Andrzej Lepper, head of the Self-Defense party, the junior partner of the government coalition. The resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister was motivated by his involvement in corruption schemes, which Lepper himself categorically denied. Lepper announced that Self-Defense would not leave the coalition, but the scandal continued to gain momentum: reports were published in the press that the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister was the result of a deliberate provocation on the part of Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

In October 2007, early parliamentary elections were held in Poland, in which PiS won 32.11 percent of the vote and lost to the Civic Platform led by Donald Tusk. According to experts, the latter will replace Jaroslaw Kaczynski as the country's prime minister. On November 5, 2007, Kaczynski resigned as prime minister.

On April 10, 2010, Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash near Smolensk. On June 20, 2010, elections for the post of president of the country were held in Poland. Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced his candidacy. According to preliminary data, 36.74% of voters voted for him, and 41.22% voted for his opponent, Speaker of the Polish Sejm Bronislaw Komorowski. The winner will be determined by the second round of elections.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

PR dla Zagranicy

Junna Korobeinikowa 25.10.2015 21:04

In connection with the victory of the Law and Justice party in the parliamentary elections, we have prepared material about its permanent chairman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Head of the Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Photo: PAP/Pawel Supernak

The Law and Justice party won the parliamentary elections that took place on October 25 in Poland with 39.1% of the vote. The main triumphant of the elections can be safely called the head of this political force, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Just a year ago, some analysts predicted that the leader of the main opposition party end soon political career, however, this did not happen. First, his loyal ally Andrzej Duda became the President of Poland. Currently Vice Chairman“Rights and Justice” led the opposition to victory in the parliamentary elections. Kaczynski on a short time faded into obscurity to become Poland's most powerful politician.

The chairman of the Law and Justice party has been present on the Polish political scene for several decades. He was a deputy, then a senator, then the prime minister of Poland. He is the twin brother of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died at the age of 60 in an accident that occurred in April 2010.

Biography

Jaroslaw Kaczynski was born on June 18, 1949 in Warsaw. In 1962, he and his twin brother Lech played the roles of Jacek and Placzek in the film adaptation of Juliusz Makuszynski's story "Of Those Who Stole the Moon" directed by Jan Báthory.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, where he defended his doctoral dissertation in 1976.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski is not married. According to rumors, he does not know how to drive a car and does not have a bank account.

Political career

In the 80s, Kaczynski was a figure in the democratic opposition and movement. He collaborated with the largest student organizations, with the Workers' Defense Committee (KOR), as well as with the Helsinki Committee. During the labor strikes of 1988, he provided consultations for workers at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk. He took part in negotiations between the PPR authorities and representatives of the Solidarity trade union, the so-called. round table negotiations, in the subgroup on political reforms.

In 1990, he founded and led the Agreement Center party, and in 2001, together with his brother Lech Kaczynski, he founded the Law and Justice party. He has been the chairman of this party since 2003.

Under the leadership of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, PiS won the 2005 parliamentary elections. From July 2006 to November 2007 Kaczynski served as prime minister of the coalition government that united the Self-Defense and League of Polish Families parties. After multiple political crises, the coalition collapsed, the Sejm was dissolved and early elections were held, in which PiS was defeated.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski as Prime Minister of Poland at a meeting with Angela Merkel. Photo: twitter.com

After losing in 2007, Kaczynski remained the head of the party and at the same time became the leader of the largest opposition force in parliament.

In 2010, after the Smolensk disaster, he unsuccessfully participated in early presidential elections, losing to Bronislaw Komorowski in the second round.

In 2011, Jaroslaw Kaczynski entered the Sejm as leader of the Law and Justice party in Warsaw. He received a parliamentary mandate, winning more than 220 thousand votes. This was the second result in Warsaw after former prime minister Donald Tusk. Kaczynski's party, however, remained in the parliamentary opposition.

At the moment Jaroslaw Kaczynski is not performing any other political functions in addition to chairmanship of the Law and Justice party.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski was awarded the title of “Person of the Year” by Gazeta Polska and Wprost, and was also awarded the Georgian Order of Victory named after St. George. He was recently awarded the title of “Person of the Year 2014 by the Krynica Economic Forum”.

Opinion about Russia

In 2007, as Prime Minister of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said: “Russia simply does not accept EU enlargement. She talks only to the strongest, and ignores people like us, that is, those who were in her zone of influence. Alexander Kwasniewski constantly traveled to Moscow and this did not yield anything. We must be calm, not succumb to provocations, but at the same time protect our status as an independent state and a full member of the EU.”

Jaroslaw Kaczynski had a hard time surviving the Smolensk disaster, in which his brother died. For 5 years he has been repeating that the crash case cannot be closed: “No matter what the cause of the disaster was, what led to the plane crashing, judging by what we know, we can say today: they ( those who died near Smolensk - ed.) were betrayed at dawn."

In 2012, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said: “We tried to meet with Putin and received the answer: “Yes, but only for 10 minutes in Russian or German.” The meeting did not take place. “We realized that the Russians are raising the ante. For them, lending a helping hand is an opportunity to humiliate their partner. We realized that in this generation cooperation with Moscow is impossible. We will maintain normal relations with Russia, avoiding aggravation of the situation and not asking anything from it.”

In 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Jaroslaw Kaczynski convinced Poles that Russia could attack Poland: “Russia can attack us, so we need to strengthen the army. Our army must be well armed so that an attack on Poland would be a real war, and not some kind of intervention, some kind of incident. I am not against foreign troops being in Poland. It’s best if it’s the Americans, because Russia is only afraid of them.”

Jaroslaw Kaczynski also commented on the indignation of the Russian side after: “It is not Poland’s fault that Russia, after years of relatively calm policies, decided to act more expansively. Now we are faced with a new situation, however, it was Russia that created this situation. She chose the path of imperialism. In any case, there will be no monuments on Polish territory to people who harmed the Poles.”

Jaroslaw Kaczynski about Ukraine

The leader of Law and Justice supported the revolution on the Maidan.

“Dear Ukrainian brothers, I came here to see what is happening with your aspirations, your dreams, to support your connection with the EU, with Europe, your march to the West. My late brother was once here on the Maidan. Maidan is a very important place on the map of Europe,” said Jaroslaw Kaczynski during a visit to Kyiv.

After the outbreak of armed confrontation in Eastern Ukraine, Kaczynski also spoke out regarding the conflict and possible assistance from Poland.

“There is no question of the participation of the Polish military in the conflict, but Ukrainians must be supplied with weapons. The Russians are ready to back down, but only under forceful pressure. However, they are dealing with a weak West. Only force can force Russia to retreat.”

“If Ukraine is not supported by arms supplies and increased sanctions against the Russian Federation, aggression from Russia will intensify.”

Yunna Korobeynikova

Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński - leader of the Law and Justice party

Personal life

He was born on June 18, 1949 in Warsaw a little earlier than his twin brother Lech in the family of engineer, World War II veteran Raimund and philologist Jadwiga Kaczynski. In 1962, the brothers starred in the children's film “The Two Who Stole the Moon” in leading roles.

The brothers graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. In 1971, Yaroslav began his scientific career, later receiving a doctorate in jurisprudence.

Single. Lives with his mother.

Career

He worked at the Institute of Science and Higher Education Policy, as well as at the Bialystok branch of the University of Warsaw.

Since the 1970s, both brothers served on the Workers' Defense Committee. In 1980, they took part in the first congress of the Solidarity trade union; in 1981, during the state of emergency in Poland, only Lech was arrested (the same surnames and dates of birth in the list of persons subject to arrest were mistaken for a typo). Yaroslav later became a consultant and member of the governing bodies of Solidarity. In the 1980s he was a member of the Polish Helsinki Committee.

1989-1990 – Chief Editor weekly newspaper "Solidarity" Tygodnik Solidarnosc.

In 1989, he was elected to the Senate from the Civic Parliamentary Party (Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny). 1990-1992 – Head of the Office of President Lech Walesa.

In 1990, he founded the “Agreement of Centrist Forces” party, which he led until 1998.

1991-1993, 1997-2001, 2001-2005 – deputy of the Sejm of Poland.

In April 2001, the brothers founded the conservative party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, PiS). Lech became its chairman. In 2001, the party gained 9.5% of the votes in the elections and Yaroslav headed the PiS faction in parliament.

In 2003, Lech was elected mayor of Warsaw, Jaroslaw became chairman of PiS. In the September elections, the party received 26.99% of the votes. In order not to interfere with Lech in the presidential elections, Yaroslav refused the post of head of government.

In 2007, a political crisis began in Poland. At the request of the prime minister, the president dismissed Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture Andrzej Lepper, head of the Self-Defense party. There were reports in the press that Lepper's resignation was provoked by Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

In early elections in October 2007, PiS won 32.11% of the vote, losing to Donald Tusk's Civic Platform.

On April 10, 2010, Lech Kaczynski died tragically in a Tu-154 plane crash near Smolensk. Then 96 people on the plane crashed, including Lech’s wife Maria. Yaroslav did not fly to the funeral event in Katyn due to illness. Yaroslav is sure that the Russian side is to blame for the disaster.

On April 26, 2010 he ran for the presidency of Poland. Lost to Bronislaw Komorowski in the second round, gaining 46.99% of the votes against Komorowski's 53.01%.