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Ex-Leader’s Twin Declares Run in Poland

BERLIN — Despite facing long odds against a victory, Poland’s former prime minister on Monday declared his candidacy for president in a special election to replace his twin brother, who was killed in a plane crash earlier this month.

The official, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said he would carry on his brother’s work and stand in his place as the candidate for the conservative Law and Justice Party in the June 20 election, according to a statement on the party’s Web site. The early election was called after his twin, Lech, and 95 others, including dozens of top officials and generals, were killed in a plane crash in western Russia on April 10.

“The tragically interrupted life of the president of the Republic of Poland, the death of the patriotic Polish elite, mean one thing for us: We must complete their mission,” Mr. Kaczynski said in the statement. “We owe it to them and we owe it to our fatherland. While immersed in pain and mourning, bound by the eternal memory of our loss, we are obliged to carry out their will.”

Mr. Kaczynski’s entry into the race, predicted by members of his party even before the state funeral for his brother and the first lady, Maria Kaczynska, on April 18, sets up an emotional campaign that will be bound up in Poland’s worst tragedy since World War II. But opinion surveys show that Mr. Kaczynski will have a difficult time defeating Bronislaw Komorowski, the speaker of the lower house of Parliament and acting president, from the rival Civic Platform party.

It was the latest chapter in the unusual saga of the twin brothers, who in 2006 and 2007 served as president and prime minister at the same time. Their efforts to uncover former Communists and suspected collaborators in government and the news media, and oust them from important positions, led to a deep polarization of politics. While they were staunch allies of the United States, skepticism toward the European Union often put them at odds with European allies.

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Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a former prime minister, mourned at the coffin of his brother Lech as it arrived in Warsaw on April 11.Credit...Radek Pietruszka/European Pressphoto Agency

Most analysts had predicted that Lech Kaczynski would lose to Mr. Komorowski in the presidential election in the fall. The crash upended all expectations, moving the election forward to June and placing pressure inside the party on Jaroslaw Kaczynski to carry on in his brother’s place.

While the crash claimed the lives of politicians from several parties, it was Law and Justice that suffered the most, as lawmakers and top members of the president’s staff traveled with him to a ceremony commemorating the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers in Katyn forest by Stalin’s secret police during World War II.

“Poland is our common, great commitment,” Mr. Kaczynski said in the statement, adding that he had the support of the family in making the decision. “It necessitates, among other things, overcoming personal suffering and undertaking the task in spite of personal tragedy.”

The deaths of so many prominent Poles prompted an outpouring of public grief that threw into question how voters would react when asked to replace Mr. Kaczynski. It vaulted Mr. Komorowski into the role of acting president, but at a moment when politicking and campaigning were deemed in poor taste.

Yet the Civic Platform government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, hopes that a victory for Mr. Komorowski would allow the party to push forward its agenda. Mr. Tusk presided over a Polish economy that continued to grow as the rest of the European Union sank into recession.

“I would very much like for this campaign to be based not on emotions, especially bad, negative emotions, but to become a debate on the future of Poland,” said Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, a member of Parliament from Law and Justice who was named Monday as Mr. Kaczynski’s campaign manager.

Michal Piotrowski contributed reporting from Warsaw.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Ex-Leader’s Twin Declares Run in Poland. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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