Monday 12 April 2010

The Sound of Silence

The last couple of days were, least to say, quite difficult. It was a huge shock for everyone. I learnt about the plane crash when Haldir texted me and told me to check the news. I simply couldn't believe it and thought that it was some kind of sick joke. I felt as if it was something unreal, something that is not really happening.

It changed when I learnt that a friend of my family was on that plane too. It was then when I discovered this more personal element in the tragedy that it became more 'real' to me.

I have never been a supporter of Lech Kaczynski and I would always vote against him and his and his brother's party. I disagree with most of their ideas and am generally critical towards them but now it's hard to say anything in face of such a tragedy. He definitely was a patriot and a good man but the way he fought for influence, had conflicts with many people who had different ideas and his rather
nationalistic political views as well as Euroscepticism have brought a lot of criticism on him. Personally I saw him as an intelligent man, a patriot who had a position that was unfortunately not suitable for him and who had to sacrifice a lot of his own ideals in order to have enough influence to have significant power in Polish politics.

It's going to be a difficult time in Poland. Right now the Marshal of the Sejm is the Acting President of Poland. He was the official candidate of PO (Civic Platform - the current ruling party) for the position of president. The elections were scheduled to take place in October but now they will need to take place earlier (within about two
months). The plane crash has completely reshaped the political landscape here. Many important people have died in it (mostly members of the opposition). Because of the ideological and political conflict between the two main Polish parties (the ruling Civic Platform and the opposition Law and Justice), the race for presidency had been expected to be a show of brutal mudslinging and airing dirty laundry in public.

Right now the elections are the last thing that both the citizens and politicians want but they must take place according to our constitution. It's hard to predict now how the campaign of the candidates will look (and who the candidates will be as two of them - Lech Kaczynski and Jerzy SzmajdziƄski have died in the plane crash).I do hope that the transition will be smooth but at the same time I seriously doubt it. I suppose that once the dust settles and the official one week of mourning is over, political pragmatism will be back into everyday life. But we'll have to wait and see what happens. Still, I have faint hope is that the catastrophe will unite everyone for a longer while.

Our hearts are with the families of those who died in this tragic plane crash.

2 comments:

  1. Horrible tragedy, and I hope that everything returns to normal in the wake of such loss as quickly as possible. Thoughts and prayers are with everyone there in Poland.
    I am very sorry to hear that you lost someone near to your family...I'm at a loss for words.

    Condolences,
    David

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  2. Thanks David, much appreciated.

    It looks like life in our country is coming back to normal as various quarrels in political life seem to be back. Tomorrow there will be a special burial ceremony in Krakow (close to the place where I live) during which most of the leaders of European (Obama will be there too) will be present. I just hope that all goes well. If anything goes wrong there, everything will go wrong...

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