Kaczynski with supporters, Sunday; photo - PAPHer riposte hinges on Kaczynski's keynote speech last Sunday, which marked the 1st anniversary of the Smolensk air disaster.
"Our state was not able to even protect its own president because it is weak," Kaczynski declared on Sunday, reiterating his oft-voiced stance that the government is partially to blame for the crash.
He then went on to quote Herbert, saying the 96 victims were “betrayed at dawn” - taken from the famous poem
The Envoy of Mr Cogito - words that have been cited as fodder for those harbouring conspiracy theories about the disaster.
Having boycotted the official state ceremonies, Kaczynski led a separate tribute outside the Presidential Palace, a site that was a highly controversial shrine last year following the death of his brother, the late president.
In a statement sent to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Katarzyna Herbert railed against Kaczynski’s use of the quote.
“Anyone who manipulatively uses the name, ideas and legacy of Zbigniew Herbert for their own political aims is, in my opinion, committing an abuse, and consequently betraying a lack of respect for my husband and his work,” she said.
“I am emphatically against such behaviour,” she added.
Katarzyna Herbert stressed that her husband always wished for his work to be “shared heritage,” but she expressed that whilst the rights to his work “were equal for all,” likewise “all should show an equal level of respect.”
Born in Lwow (now Lviv Ukraine) in 1924, Zbigniew Herbert served in the official underground army (AK) during the Second World War. A noted dissident during the communist era, he came to be seen as a figurehead of the counter-culture wave, not least during the Solidarity era.
Herbert received numerous international awards, and lived sporadic periods abroad from the 1960s onwards. He died in Warsaw in 1998.
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source:
PAP