Mourning extended until Sunday

The Poles will elect a new president in the summer

Acting Polish President Marshal of the Sejm Bronislaw Komorowski yesterday extended national mourning for another two days. Thus, it will be nine days and will end on Sunday, April 18, when the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who died on April 10 in a plane crash near Smolensk, will take place. Farewell to all the victims of the plane crash (according to the latest data, there are 97 of them) will take place on Saturday in Warsaw on Piłsudski Square in front of what is expected to be a million Poles. Changes have been made to the sad ceremony: the coffins with the bodies of the victims will be placed in the Torvar sports and exhibition complex, where only relatives and loved ones of the victims of the tragedy will be allowed.

In the meantime, thousands and thousands of mourning Poles coming from all over the country say goodbye to the presidential couple in an endless silent stream. The queue to the presidential palace, where the coffins with the bodies of Lech and Maria Kaczynski are installed in the columned hall, stretches for kilometers, it is not interrupted day or night. A Vremya Novostei correspondent was at the presidential palace last midnight. People stand for seven hours, but no one complains: “This is our duty... we are all shocked by what happened and want to be together.”

However, the mournful silence and unity were nevertheless blown up. An unexpected protest was caused by the burial place of the presidential couple - Wawel Castle in Krakow, which is the tomb of almost all Polish kings and famous Poles - Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Slowacki, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Wladyslaw Sikorski and Jozef Pilsudski. The decision about this burial place, made by the relatives of the deceased, was approved by the church. But many Poles now believe it was a hasty decision. In Krakow, it caused a spontaneous manifestation, where about five thousand citizens, although they paid tribute to the deceased head of state, still expressed doubts with shouts and banners that he deserved eternal peace in the national pantheon.

Andrzej Wajda also responded to this; yesterday he stressed in a special letter that “President Lech Kaczynski was a kind and modest person, but there is no reason why he could rest among the Polish kings, next to Marshal Jozef Pilsudski.” The famous film director noted that “such a decision could lead to the deepest split in Polish society since independence in 1989.”

Meanwhile, intensive preparations for the funeral of the presidential couple have already begun. It became known that the deceased president and his wife will be buried in the same sarcophagus, which will be installed under the Tower of Silver Bells of Wawel Castle, near the grave of Jozef Pilsudski. The rectangular sarcophagus will be made of granite . Nearby in a niche there will be an urn with soil from Katyn and a memorial plaque, which were installed there in 1990, on the 50th anniversary of the Katyn tragedy.

Political leaders from around the world will gather at the mourning events. On April 18, President Dmitry Medvedev will arrive in Krakow to attend the funeral ceremony of Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria. “The arrival of the head of the Russian state is being carefully prepared; we are expecting a working group on Thursday,” Dmitry Polyansky, minister-counselor of the Russian Embassy in Poland, told VN. “Russian representatives will also take part in the mourning events that will take place the day before, April 17, in Warsaw.” The presidents of the USA, France, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary, Georgia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, and Lithuania confirmed their arrival in Krakow. Prime ministers of many countries and heads of international organizations, including the NATO Secretary General, are expected. The Ukrainian delegation will include the president, prime minister and chairman of parliament. The list of high-ranking people is growing.

Yesterday, acting President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski announced that he would announce the date of the presidential elections on April 21. It is now safe to assume that the vote will take place on June 20th.

Valery MASTEROV, Warsaw