Mohair berets

[1] The expression “mohair berets” was used for the first time in 2004 and it referred to the people who were regularly attending masses in Gdańsk celebrated by Henryk Jankowski, the parish priest.

Probably the first article which introduced the expression “mohair berets” to the Polish press was the one published in the daily Rzeczpospolita from 23 October 2004 titled “Labyrinths of the parish priest”.

The term “mohair berets” became commonly used after Robert Górecki, a photojournalist of Gazeta Wyborcza, published the photograph on the Internet which depicted the 14th anniversary of Radio Maryja in December 2005.

Then the term entered the language of politics and became partly associated with the supporters of those parties which were given plenty of broadcast time on Radio Maryja during the election campaign in 2005, especially the electorate of the League of Polish Families (LPR) and Law and Justice (PiS).

The example of such a reference is the term “mohair coalition” used by Donald Tusk during the debate in Sejm on the inaugural address of a newly designated Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz on 10 November 2005.

They usually spend their free time on an allotment (gardening plots are widespread in Poland for dwellers of high-rise flats), solve crosswords and puzzles or go fishing.