Smolensk cross. Photo: east news

A cross which was erected in front the Presidential Palace by scouts shortly after the Smolensk tragedy on April 10 has become the subject of heated dicussion as whether to leave it or move it to what the President-Elect, Bronislaw Komorowski has called a “more suitable location”.

The heated discussion about the fate of the cross started as the President-Elect, Bronislaw Komorowski stated in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza over the weekend that the “Presidential Palace is a state sanctuary. Understandably, the cross was put there as a sign of mourning [of the presidential couple],” adding that “this matter has to be taken care of […], it will be moved to another more suitable place in co-operation with the church authorities.”

Jacek Michalowski, the newly-appointed head of the presidential chancellery told TVP Info, Sunday, that the cross will be moved within two weeks, although church authorities have stated that the decision has nothing to with the Warsaw diocese.

“The cross is placed on the forecourt of the Presidential Palace and as such the Church has nothing to say in the decision concerning [its fate], it may eventually give an opinion about [any future moves],” spokesman for the Warsaw diocese, Fr. Rafal Markowski told Polish Radio.

The move has prompted politicians from the socially conservative Law and Justice to protect the cross. “I am surprosed that the first thing the new president wants to do is to get rid of the Smolensk cross,” Zbigniew Girzynski from Law and Justice has said.

Furthermore, Zbigniew Ziobro, a prominent Law and Justice politician and member of the European Parliament, wrote an open letter to the president-elect to try and stop the cross from being moved.

“This cross which was erected by the presidential palace is a symbol of those days when Poles, united in pain, came to this place to show their solidarity and mourning,” Ziobro wrote.

Some are wary that the debate concerning the cross will result in political baiting. Slawomir Nitras, a Civic Platform MEP told Polish Radio, Monday morning, that “a dignified solution must be found” for the cross.

“I would like us not to argue [about the cross], it is improper and shameful,” Nitras said, adding that the best suitable way to commemorate the victims of the plane crash would be a memorial plaque outside the Presidential Palace. (jb)

Related link: Heated debate over Smolensk cross - Press Review, thenews.pl 12.07.2010

Sources: IAR/Gazeta Wyborcza/Życie Warszawy

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