Anger over removal of cross erected to Polish president

ADMIRERS OF former Polish president Lech Kaczynski have denounced the removal of a cross that was erected outside Warsaw’s presidential palace as a memorial when he died in a plane crash.

Kaczynski was killed in April along with 95 other people, including his wife and leading figures in Polish politics, finance and the military when their jet crashed on the approach to Smolensk airport in western Russia. They were travelling to Katyn to commemorate more than 20,000 Polish prisoners who were murdered there by Soviet forces in 1940.

Supporters of the controversial Kaczynski – and members of the Law and Justice (PiS) party that he founded with his twin brother Jaroslaw – have rallied outside the presidential palace to oppose plans to move the memorial cross.

Protests by the so-called “defenders of the cross” prompted counter demonstrations by those who wanted the cross removed following the inauguration of new president Bronislaw Komorowski, a member of the ruling Civic Platform party that ousted PiS from government in 2007.

The fate of the cross has become a divisive issue in recent months and a symbol of the tension between the older, conservative and staunchly Catholic portion of Polish society that broadly backed the Kaczynskis, and the younger, more liberal segment represented by Civic Platform.

“It was a good decision. I think it was expected by people in Poland and Warsaw. Better late than never,” said prime minister Donald Tusk, observing that the cross had become “a pretext for conflict”.

The defenders of the cross were caught unawares by the unannounced operation to move it yesterday morning. It was taken into a chapel in the presidential palace and is expected to be moved to a church in central Warsaw.

“Maintaining the status quo was hurting the authority of the state and the church and was hurting the religious feelings of many Poles. The cross had become hostage to political games and ideological rows,” said presidential aide Jacek Michalowski.

However, deputy PiS party leader Beata Szydlo called the move a “scandalous act”, while Beata Gosiewska, whose husband died in the plane crash, branded it a “disgrace”. Protester Dariusz Wernicki complained: “This is ignoring the voice of society. Thousands of people were gathering here to pray by this cross. It’s not their property to take it and hide it.”