With just days to go before John Paul II’s beatification Polska The Times publishes an interview with former president Lech Walesa about the Polish Pope.
“Karol Wojtyla kept our spirits up and was sure that Solidarity movement will be reborn,” recalls Lech Walesa who will participate in the Pope’s beatification in Rome on 1st May.
The former president met John Paul II for the first time in 1981. Walesa went to Rome with other opposition leaders including Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Anna Walentynowicz, to thank the Pope for what he did for Poland’s freedom.
“Without the Pope there would have been no Solidarity,” says the former president. Walesa met the Pope on several other occasions especially after becoming the head of state. “Every contact with him was like charging batteries,” says Walesa who last saw the Pope a month before his death. “He was already very weak. It was a very moving audience,” Walesa told Polska The Times.
Increased salaries for teachers will ruin the state budget, writes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. According to the EU directives, Poland has to reduce budget deficit from 7.9 to 2.9 percent of GDP. However, it will be difficult if teachers receive higher salaries because other professional groups, such as policemen, soldiers or farmers, will follow with their pay claims. Teachers were promised 7-percent pay rise by 2012, which means that they would receive on average 1,000 euro, but they demand 10-percent. Next week, the government will discuss the budget, writes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
On the day of the Royal wedding in the UK Gazeta Wyborcza publishes a moving story about a Polish woman who was refused to get married because she is handicapped. Kasia suffers from cerebral palsy. She is paralyzed and can hardly speak but mentally capable. After Kasia’s parents died her partner Andrzej took care of her. The couple wanted to get married but a registry office refused and directed the case to court claiming that the woman might be incapacitated and needs a certificate from a psychiatrists. “I graduated from university and I’m able to work,” the humiliated women told Gazeta Wyborcza. “If clerks checked everyone who is about to get married if they are of sound mind and emotionally mature, they would have to cancel half of weddings,” comments Piotr Todys from TUS foundation which helps the handicapped.
Over a million Poles are going to spend a long May weekend out of home, writes the Rzeczpospolita daily. Most Poles will celebrate the Labour Day, on 1st of May, the National Flag Day on 2nd, and the Constitution Day on 3rd in the country but a growing number of people decide to go abroad, usually combining Easter with the May break, having a 10-day holiday. About 100,000 Poles will go to Rome to participate in John Paul II’s beatification. Those who decide to stay at home will meet their friends at garden parties, writes Rzeczpospolita. (mg)