LEADING MEMBERS of Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party say they are unsure if their party will survive the death of one of its founders, Polish president Lech Kaczynski.
At a ceremony outside the Sejm parliament building, PiS politicians used to the rough and tumble of Polish political life wept openly as they laid white candles before pictures of the 96 victims of Saturday’s air crash.
Leading the simple ceremony was Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, hunched and squinting in the sun. He swallowed rapidly to retain composure as a soldier played the Last Post, flanked by Bronislaw Komorowski, the parliamentary speaker-turned-acting president, and a frowning Radoslaw Sikorski, the defence minister.
After the ceremony PiS MPs, some still crying, gathered in anxious clusters. “I’m afraid for the future of the party and for the future of our country,” said Jolanta Szczypinska, a PiS MP and close ally of party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
The PiS front bench met yesterday evening to discuss the incident that has robbed them of many MPs as well as leading strategists.
A crucial absence from the meeting was Jaroslaw Kaczynski. He flew to Russia to identify the remains of his twin brother and his brother’s wife, Maria.
The weekend tragedy has brought a ceasefire, at least for now, among Poland’s warring political factions. Tributes have poured in for Mr Kaczynski from the most unlikely quarters, including his one-time ally turned enemy, Lech Walesa.
“We worked together to build Polish democracy,” said Mr Walesa, leader of the Solidarity movement that brought down communism in 1989.
Mr Kaczynski was a close aide of Mr Walesa until an acrimonious split. “Differences later drove us apart,” said Mr Walesa yesterday, “but that is a closed chapter now.”
After attending morning Mass, thousands of Poles lined up to sign condolence books at the Sejm and around the country as similar books were opened in Polish embassies worldwide.
“It’s a huge tragedy for something like this to happen, for us to lose the very people we needed to lead Poland in the future,” said Malgorzata Cedek (48) as she waited to sign.
In the early afternoon, Poles young and old hung around Warsaw city centre, unsure of how to react as they waited for the president’s coffin to return.
Across from the presidential palace, young people sat on marble street benches installed for this year’s 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, idly pushing buttons that played the composer’s tragic melodies on a loudspeaker.
As acting president, Mr Komorowski worked quickly to establish continuity. The central bank has a new acting head to replace the governor killed in the crash. The Polish army said it had enacted measures after the death of its chief of staff, Gen Franciszek Gagor, and other leading generals.
“It’s sad and painful but our structure means that nothing could happen that would leave a dangerous hole,” said an army spokesman.
The Irish Ambassador to Poland, Declan O’Donovan, paid tribute to Mr Kaczynski as a man who, contrary to his controversial media image, “wasn’t anti-everything”. “I knew him well, I took him to Ireland on his state visit in 2007,” said Mr O’Donovan, who had met several of the crash victims in recent days.
“I liked Mr Kaczynski, I liked his wife, and many of the people around him became friends of mine. He was far more liberal than he was portrayed in the press.”