Warsaw president, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz has said that the opposition’s call for the new Copernicus Science Centre to be named after Lech Kaczynski is doing more harm to the reputation of the late president than good.
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz – who is up for re-election in local elections on November 21 - told TOK FM that the new science centre, which opens in the capital tomorrow, has little to do with President Kaczynski, who died in the Smolensk air crash in April.
She claimed that the centre is one of her and her party, Civic Platform’s successes. “”Two years ago there was just a lawn there,” she said of the site where the centre is situated.
Yesterday, leader of the Law and Justice party in parliament Mariusz Blaszczak said that the first person to raise the idea of building a science centre in Warsaw was in fact Lech Kaczynski when he was mayor of the capital before becoming head of state.
“Warsaw Law and Justice councilors have signed an petition addressed to Gronkiewicz-Waltz and the Ministry of Education for the centre to bear the name of [law] Professor Lech Kaczynski,” said Blaszczak.
But who was the originator of the idea for the Copernicus Science Centre?
“I do not want to comment on statements made by politicians. Instead of having an argument we should just enjoy the opening of this magnificent facility,” Prof. Lukasz Turski, head of the science centre told the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.
The Copernicus Science Centre - which was given that name after an internet poll asked readers to chose from a number of alternatives - aims to promote science, in a modern, hands-on manner, with visitors able to take part in experiments.
A Big Bang show directed by British film maker Peter Greenaway and his wife Sakia Boddeke was held at the site on November 5 in front of 3,000 spectators as part of the opening events. “In the past we used to build cathedrals, now [we build] museums, but the difference between them is not significant. Both of the places are full of optimism and hope,” Peter Greenaway said. (pg)