Poland faced a spiraling row yesterday over a decision to bury late president Lech Kaczynski in a castle alongside past kings, a move that has sparked protests and cracked the grieving nation’s unity.
Hundreds of people rallied on Wednesday for a second night in cities including Warsaw and Krakow, where the divisive conservative leader and his wife will be laid to rest on Sunday in the historic Wawel castle.
More than 40,000 people joined a Facebook campaign and thousands more signed a petition against the burial plan for the Kaczynskis, who were among 96 people killed when a Polish official jet crashed on Saturday in Russia.
PHOTO: AFP
US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Britain’s Prince Charles are among the foreign dignitaries who are set to attend the increasingly controversial funeral.
The dispute is in stark contrast to the official eight days of mourning for the Kaczynskis and the other crash victims, who include the military top brass, the state bank governor and a Solidarity movement heroine.
About 200 people demonstrated in central Warsaw late on Wednesday and others took to the streets of the Baltic port of Gdansk, Poznan in the west and in Krakow itself.
“I would protest no matter who they tried to bury there now, because it’s a sacred place for Poles,” protester Aleksandra Kozlowski said in Warsaw.
The nationalist and deeply Catholic Lech Kaczynski, in office since 2005, was a highly divisive figure at home and abroad. His identical twin, former prime minister Jaroslaw, is leader of Poland’s conservative opposition.
The highly symbolic location for the burial was chosen by Kaczynski’s family and the church, “without the initiative of and without state authorities taking a position,” Interim President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Wednesday.
The castle’s cathedral crypt is the resting place for several historic sovereigns, including a saint. The Kaczynskis are to lie alongside Jozef Pilsudski, a revolutionary who forged the Polish republic in 1918.
Tens of thousands of people have paid homage to the bodies of the late president and his wife, which are lying in state in Warsaw.
The aging presidential jet came down in thick fog while taking the delegation to a memorial for thousands of Polish officers massacred by Soviet forces 70 years ago, still a point of contention between the two countries.
Russian investigators say the crew refused three times to heed advice to divert to another airport because of the fog. Polish officials say there is no evidence to back reports that Kaczynski pressured the crew to land.
Despite the burial row, Poland’s political scene is likely to remain calm until after the funeral.
Komorowski said the date for early presidential elections would not be announced until Wednesday, but officials said they would likely be on June 20.
Komorowski, a liberal, had been expected to run against Kaczynski in elections scheduled for the autumn. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2007, may take his sibling’s place, but has made no public statement.
Also See: The cruelty of chance
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
Pets are not forgotten during Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, when even Fido and Tiger get a place at the altars Mexican families set up to honor their deceased loved ones, complete with flowers, candles and photographs. Although the human dead usually get their favorite food or drink placed on altars, the nature of pet food can make things a little different. The holiday has roots in Mexican pre-Hispanic customs, as does the reverence for animals. The small, hairless dogs that Mexicans kept before the Spanish conquest were believed to help guide their owners to the afterlife, and were sometimes given
RSS