Saturday 10 April 2010

The death of President Kaczynski

Poland's President Lech Kaczynski has been killed in a plane crash in Moscow.

There is no doubt that President Kaczynski had often been a controversial and polarising figure in Polish politics.

Fabian Executive member and former Europe Minister Denis MacShane MP who has close links with Poland has praised Kaczynski as a "Polish patriot" and says that every friend of Poland would be shocked and saddened by his death.

He said:


"This awful tragedy takes away a true son of Poland who sought always to uphold the honour and stature of the Polish nation and people as he saw them.

He was a stalwart of the independent Solidarnosc trade union movement and fought to restore democracy to Poland in the 1980s.

As president he was brave when he risked his life by flying to Georgia in 2008 to show solidarity with the Georgian people when they faced the land-sea-air invasion by Russia.

He reached out to the Jewish community and worked with Poland's chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich.

Last week there was an important moment when Russia's prime minister Putin finally acknowledged Russian guilt for the crimes of Katyn. Poland is more than ever integrated into Europe. The exchanges of people, goods, ideas and culture between Poland and Britain is stronger than ever.

President Kaczynski was a Polish patriot and his tragic death hurts and hits all Poles and friends of Poland."

4 comments:

Coventrian said...

From

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Kaczy%C5%84ski

Kaczyński banned the Warsaw gay movement parade in 2004 and 2005, locally known as the Parada Równości, stating the lack of necessary documentation by organisers as the reason but also saying the parade would promote a "homosexual lifestyle".

Denis MacShane is a hypocritical scumbag.

Coventrian said...

Secondly, 'As president he was brave when he risked his life by flying to Georgia in 2008 to show solidarity with the Georgian people when they faced the land-sea-air invasion by Russia.'

And there was me (and the OSCE observers), thinking the Georgians had invaded South Ossetia, killed UN-agreed peacekeepers, destroyed homes and murdered scores of civilians. But then I'm not a Fabian neo-con.

Sunder Katwala said...

Coventrian,

I agree that the Law and Justice government was authoritarian and populist, and Kaczyński's record on gay rights was terrible. I thought about making some specific reference to that in posting this, but left it at "controversial and polarising" in the context.

Denis MacShane himself has often been critical of Law and Justice on gay rights particularly. there is a tiny nod towards political differences in "as he saw them". But he must have felt this wasn't the moment to go into the pros and cons in detail. I asked him for a comment because he does have a lot of involvement with Poland.

Chris Brooke said...

he does have a lot of involvement with Poland

He does. But he is also these days a terrible hack who frequently spouts nonsense (which is a shame, as once upon a time he wasn't like this at all).