Virtually all the papers run farewell articles to Professor Zbigniew Religa, outstanding Polish cardiac surgeon, former health minister in the cabinet of Jarosław Kaczynski.
Press reviewed by Joanna Najfeld
Professor Religa died on Sunday at his home in Warsaw, at the age of 70. He suffered from cancer. "He died at home like he wanted", "God, he's no longer with us" - frontpage tabloids FAKT and Super Express. Headlines in other dailies are the same "Zbigniew Religa is dead". All papers publish frontpage photos of the professor.
Steinbach threatens she will be back, writes RZECZPOSPOLITA. The German historical revisionist, head of the German expellees union, which promotes the image of Germans as victims, not aggressors, of World War Two - Erica Steinbach says she will eventually be on the board of the "Visible Sign" foundation, which is about to build a museum of World War Two in Berlin. The controversial project has been opposed, among others, by Polish authorities, for its scandalous historical revisionism. The candidature of Steinbach to the board, although supported by the CDU ruling coalition party, was finally blocked, among international protests. The Polish side welcomed the decision but also expressed fears that it might not be final after all. Władysław Bartoszewski, government representative, Poland's former foreign minister and Auschwitz German Nazi concentration camp survivor, who was on a mission in Berlin in mid-February to stop the Steinbach nomination said the woman is anti-Polish and is as inappropriate for Polish-German dialogue as a decided anti-Semite would be to negotiate with Jerusalem, reminds RZECZPOSPOLITA.
If they want war, they will have it, says bishop Tadeusz Pieronek in an interview for the DZIENNIK daily. He comments on the Prime Minister's recent call for debate on euthanasia and in vitro fertilization in Poland. It came as a great surprise to the Church, the conservative opposition, but also to members of the ruling Civic Platform party, writes the paper. "We don't need this discussion before the elections to the European parliament, now we should focus on real problems, not ideology," ruling party MP Antoni Mężydło is quoted as saying in DZIENNIK. Asked about the recent case, publicized by the media, of a 40-year old man whose mother wants to euthanise him, bishop Tadeusz Pieronek told the paper, "You cannot use individual cases to overturn rules. Of course, it provokes pity, but recently we had a similar case of Janusz Świtaj, who requested euthanasia, but when he got a job, he changed his mind."
A Pole has been severely wounded in a terrorist incident in Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are dead in the first in 12 years such attack on a British military base, reports GAZETA WYBORCZA. Among the injured is a 32-year old Polish citizen, pizza delivery man, who has undergone serious operations and is now in a stable state. So far, the Ulster conflict cost the lives of over three thousand people, including 500 British soldiers, the last one twelve years ago, in 1997, writes GAZETA WYBORCZA.