A top member of Poland’s clergy has said that the plaque on the wall of the presidential residence in Warsaw - which had excrement thrown over it yesterday - is not enough to commemorate the 96 deaths in Smolensk in April.
The 71-year-old man who threw excrement over Smolensk plaque yesterday afternoon has been charged with defamation of a national monument and could face up to five years in prison.
The Archbishop of Gdansk Slawoj Leszek Glodz, meanwhile, thinks that a monument of the Smolensk victims should be erected in front of the Presidential Palace. The current plaque, which was unveiled last Thursday, is more in tribute to the protestors who have defended the place of a cross in front of the palace, he said, and not necessarily the victims of the April 10 plane crash which included President Lech Kaczynski.
“Lech Kaczynski was one of Poland’s great presidents, along with Gabriel Narutowicz and Ignacy Moscicki. Therefore we should build Kaczynski’s memory,” said the Archbishop and condemned a row over the cross and monument.
“What is happening now leads to devaluation of great concepts, devaluation of the president’s address, devaluation of the events and people. It is unacceptable. We should look for a new language and new actions otherwise a gap between the society and authorities will continue,” Archbishop Glodz is quoted by the PAP news agency as saying.
Archbishop Glodz thinks that a plaque which has recently been installed on the Presidential Palace is not enough to commemorate the Smolensk victims and that, in fact, it is a tribute to the Defenders of the Cross and not the victims of the presidential plane’s crash.
In the archbishop’s opinion there is no need to move the monument of Prince Jozef Poniatowski from outside of the Presidential Palace because there is enough room for both it and a new monument.
On Monday, a design of a monument commemorating the Smolensk crash victims, showing dozens of hands pointing to the sky, has been presented by the self-styled Defenders of the Cross.
The “Obelisk to the fidelity to the homeland”, by sculptor Maksymilian Buskupskiis, is planned to be 8-metres high, depicting 96 hands – to symbolize the 96 who died in Smolensk on April 10 - emerging from the ground and pointing to the sky. (pg/mg)
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