Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski

President Lech Kaczynski came to Brussels yesterday to voice Polish fears of German hegemony over Europe, supported by his twin brother Jaroslaw's ringing accusations about Germany's "incomprehensible crimes against Poland" - the murder of six million Poles, half of them Jews, by the Nazis.

The Kaczynski twins, Lech and prime minister Jaroslaw, view Berlin as a threat to Polish sovereignty, and are convinced that Chancellor Angela Merkel has abused her role as EU president to push the German national interest.

The brothers were reared on tales of Polish heroism and martyrdom fighting the Nazis from their father, who fought in the Warsaw uprising. When he was mayor of Warsaw, Lech built Poland's first museum to the uprising.

While the Kaczynskis' tactics are criticized abroad as abrasive and isolationist, the fundamental anti-German Polish position enjoys cross-party and broad public support at home.