Late Polish president’s twin brother to seek top job
WARSAW (Reuters) – Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland’s late president, declared his candidacy on Monday for a presidential election but political analysts said the combative nationalist was unlikely to win.
Poles are due to elect a new president on June 20 following the death of Lech Kaczynski, along with 95 other people, mostly senior Polish officials, in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.
Coming to terms with Poland’s disaster
Candles and flowers are pictured on a square near the Presidential Palace in Warsaw April 13, 2010. Officials said a memorial service for all 96 victims of the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and dozens of high-ranking officials would be held on Saturday and that a state funeral for Kaczynski and his wife could take place either on the same day or on Sunday. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
When she got a tip-off on Saturday morning that something might
have happened to President Lech Kaczynski, one of our Warsaw
reporters grabbed her mobile phone to call a reliable government
source. No answer. Hmm, perhaps something really had happened.
Perhaps the president had fallen sick and the source was
attending an emergency meeting. A few minutes later she called
again, still no answer. The source always answered his mobile to
her. Then came the terrible news that the military plane
carrying the president and 95 other people, including much of
Poland’s military and political elite, had crashed in thick fog
in a Russian forest, killing all on board. Her source had been
among them.
Volcanic ash cloud may scupper Polish funeral plan
WARSAW (Reuters) – A volcanic ash cloud that has shut down Europe’s airports threatened on Friday to delay a state funeral for Polish President Lech Kaczynski due to be attended by world leaders including President Barack Obama.
Tens of thousands of mourners continued to file past the coffins of Kaczynski and his wife Maria in Warsaw’s presidential palace. Some had been waiting up to 18 hours to view the coffins, a measure of the grief felt by many Poles over the worst single disaster to hit their country since World War Two.
Burial move shows cracks in Polish unity on crash
WARSAW (Reuters) – A decision to bury Polish President Lech Kaczynski in the crypt of Wawel cathedral in Krakow, a place reserved for the nation’s heroes, poets and kings, has sharply divided Poles days before the funeral. Kaczynski died in a plane crash in Russia on Saturday along with 95 other people including his wife Maria and many members of Poland’s political and military elite.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz announced on Tuesday that Kaczynski and his wife Maria would be buried at Wawel on Sunday following a request from the president’s twin brother Jaroslaw, who heads the main opposition party, and other family members.
Poland’s Komorowski walks political tight-rope
WARSAW (Reuters) – Bronislaw Komorowski, propelled into Poland’s top job by President Lech Kaczynski’s death, faces the delicate task of consoling a traumatized nation while steering it toward an election he wants to win.
As speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, Komorowski automatically became acting president when Kaczynski died in a plane crash in Russia last Saturday along with several senior politicians and military officers.
Poland moves to fill key posts after plane crash
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland moved on Monday to fill key state posts after a weekend plane crash in western Russia killed President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other top officials, plunging the country into mourning.
Russian investigators found the body of Kaczynski’s wife Maria after the president’s coffin was returned home on Sunday to a Warsaw awash with flowers, candles and red-white national flags, but had identified the remains of only a quarter of the 96 victims of the crash.
Russians and Poles try to identify crash bodies
WARSAW, April 12 (Reuters) – Russian and Polish investigators struggled on Monday to identify the remains of nearly 100 people killed in a weekend plane crash in which Poland’s president and many other top officials perished.
President Lech Kaczynski’s coffin returned home on Sunday to a Warsaw plunged into deep mourning and awash with flowers, candles and red and white national flags, but the remains of the 95 other victims were sent to Moscow for identification.
Kaczynski’s ageing Polish government Tupolev plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk airport in western Russia on Saturday, reportedly after the pilot ignored traffic controllers’ advice not to land.
While the deaths of military leaders and leading opposition figures are a huge blow to the political and military elite, the crash poses no threat to political and economic stability in Poland, a country of 38 million people firmly anchored in the European Union and the U.S.-led NATO alliance. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For an overview of stories on the disaster see [nLDE639096] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> In Poland, the government, not the president, decides policy, though the head of state can veto laws. From the government, only three deputy ministers were on the plane.
Financial markets largely shrugged off the crash on Monday, with the zloty currency <EURPLN=> <PLN=> and stocks <.WIG20> flat or slightly firmer. They were awaiting a decision on who would replace Slawomir Skrzypek, the governor of the Polish central bank who was also killed. [nWSF008921] [nLDE63B0A8]
Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Monday he would act quickly to name a new governor. The bank’s Monetary Policy Council was also due to meet at 0900 GMT to discuss the situation. [nLDE63B05M]
IDENTIFYING THE DEAD
In Moscow, Russia’s health minister Tatyana Golikova said the process of identifying all the bodies would take two to three days.
Her Polish counterpart Ewa Kopacz, visiting Moscow, said: "It’s not an easy procedure. In many cases it’s only possible to identify the dead with the help of genetic expertise."
Kopacz also expressed gratitude to the Russian authorities for their professionalism and their collaborative approach.
The crash has also shocked Russia, Poland’s historic foe and communist-era overlord, which declared Monday a day of mourning.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s decision to personally see off Kaczynski’s coffin from Smolensk made a good impression on Poles.
Kaczynski and his entourage had been planning to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD secret police in the nearby Katyn forest.
Poland has daclared a week of mourning. Kaczynski’s coffin, greeted in silence by tens of thousands of people lining its route from Warsaw’s military airport to the presidential palace on Sunday, will be available for public viewing from Tuesday.
"We will delay the funeral until his wife Maria’s body has been identified and has returned to Poland. There is an agreement between the government and the President’s chancellery on this," Jacek Sasin from the chancellery said on Monday.
PRIDE, QUESTIONS
Millions of mourners across staunchly Roman Catholic Poland packed into churches on Sunday to pray for the dead. Houses, shops and businesses were decorated with Polish flags.
"I am proud of how the nation reacted, it is something to be proud of, but we also have to be responsible and prudent," said Lech Walesa, Poland’s former president and onetime leader of the Solidarity movement that overthrew communism in 1989.
"We have to ask ourselves why this happened. It’s not about arguing or placing blame on anyone, but we have to draw conclusions, lessons for the future," Walesa told Polish TV.
Kaczynski, a combative nationalist known for his distrust of both the EU and of Russia, belonged to Solidarity in the 1980s but later quarrelled with Walesa.
Kaczynski and his identical twin brother Jaroslaw, a former prime minister, had led opposition to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-market reform government and its efforts to take Poland into the euro as soon as possible.
Komorowski has said he will set the date of a presidential election which had been due in October after holding talks with Poland’s political parties. Under the constitution the election must now be held by late June.
Komorowski, 58, is the presidential candidate of Tusk’s ruling Civic Platform (PO). Opinion polls suggest he would have defeated Kaczynski in the election. (Additional reporting by Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Chris Borowski in Warsaw; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Russians, Poles try to identify bodies after crash
WARSAW (Reuters) – Russian and Polish investigators struggled on Monday to identify the remains of nearly 100 people killed in a weekend plane crash in which Poland’s president and many other top officials perished.
President Lech Kaczynski’s coffin returned home on Sunday to a Warsaw plunged into deep mourning and awash with flowers, candles and red and white national flags, but the remains of the 95 other victims were sent to Moscow for identification.
Poland mourns president, elite killed in crash
WARSAW/SMOLENSK, Russia (Reuters) – Poles were in deep mourning on Sunday after President Lech Kaczynski and many of the country’s ruling elite were killed in a plane crash.
The aging Tupolev plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia on Saturday, killing all 97 people on board. Kaczynski had been planning to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet forces in a nearby forest.
Polish plane crash boosts PM Tusk
WARSAW (Reuters) – The plane crash that killed Poland’s president and leading opposition politicians has removed at one stroke key opponents of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his ruling centrist Civic Platform (PO).
While a shocking blow to Poland’s body politic, analysts say constitutional mechanisms will ensure there is no power vacuum and there will not be any long-term impact on stability.
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