Poland's Frat Party

A knack for politics must run in the family. After Jaroslaw Kaczynski led his Law and Justice Party to victory in Poland's parliamentary elections last month, his identical twin brother Lech was elected President last week. The brothers, who talk as many as a dozen times a day by phone ("We have the same family. There is much to discuss," joked Lech in an interview with Time before the parliamentary vote), look set to dominate Polish politics for the next five years.

The Kaczynskis' appeal is due in large part to their promises to maintain social programs threatened by their rivals in the Civic Platform party. Civic Platform advocated radical free-market reforms to slash the budget deficit and jump-start the economy, but voters shied away from these in favor of the Law and Justice Party's more socially oriented approach. Before the vote, the now President-elect told Time he opposed privatization of industries he considered vital to "Polish national security," especially in the energy sector, and that he favored a more "sensitive" economic policy. Translation: the brothers are expecting to slow the privatization of industries, reduce taxes for low-income families, and increase pensions and family-welfare payments by making cuts in the bureaucracy.

An attempt to form a coalition between the Kaczynskis' Law and Justice Party and Civic Platform failed last week, and the Law and Justice Party was expected to form a minority government, with Civic Platform in opposition. If so, politics in Warsaw will be contentious — if also conspicuously fraternal.