Karol Nawrocki, presidential candidate and head of the Institute of National Remembrance, met with fans at Jasna Góra. There were controversial shouts, now there are critical comments. Nawrocki himself doesn't see the problem.
During the fans' pilgrimage to Jasna Góra, there were fan banners and a mass. After the mass, a meeting with the PiS candidate for president was held in the sanctuary. With cries such as “once with a sickle, once with a hammer, red rabble!”
Neither the PiS candidate for president, who is the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, nor the priest present at the venue reacted to these words in the hall at Jasna Góra.
– You wanted to censor slogans in stadiums, it's too much. The fans are also citizens of the Republic of Poland. I met with them and I will continue to meet with them, said Karol Nawrocki, the Law and Justice candidate for president, when asked why he did not react.
It's just that these words “once with a sickle, once with a hammer, the red rabble!” They did not die in the stadium, but in the sanctuary, a place of religious worship.
Nawrocki on the fans' pilgrimage. In the background there are shouts: “Once with a sickle, once with a hammer, the red rabble”TVN24
“This is actually an incitement to murder”
– This is actually an incitement to murder. This is not an ordinary song, I know that this is how some people explain it, but it is hate speech and I would protest in real time, immediately, if I were there – says Anna Maria Żukowska, an MP from the Left.
– I really appreciate the fans' and stadiums' sense of tackling many topics in a very autonomous way – says Karol Nawrocki, the Law and Justice candidate for president.
This view is not shared by the presidential minister, who firmly opposes such slogans at Jasna Góra, a unique and sacred place for Poles.
– There should be no place for this type of shouting in a place like Jasna Góra. It's over, full stop, and I have no doubt about it – emphasizes Andrzej Dera, Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President.
“Desecration of a place sacred to Poles”
Law and Justice sees nothing controversial in the words themselves. It is an anti-communist slogan which, although there has been no communism in Poland for 36 years, appears periodically, for example at independence marches, to which PiS politicians regularly attend. The lack of reaction from the presidential candidate, who is the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, is not surprising from PiS.
According to the MEP from this party, someone else should have reacted. – This is a matter of the clergy's reaction, it has a different dimension, because Christianity and church teachings have a different dimension than purely political and ideological disputes – says Tobiasz Bocheński, MEP from Law and Justice.
Fans' pilgrimages to Jasna Góra have been controversial for years, and PiS politicians are often guests of the sanctuary.
– Conducting an election campaign at Jasna Góra is truly something extraordinary, it is truly a desecration of a place sacred to Poles, and it is not the first time that PiS has used it, we have seen it many times – points out Cezary Tomczyk, Deputy Minister of National Defense.
Nawrocki: fans during the pilgrimage are gathered by love for PolandTVN24
“The process of using the church for political purposes has begun again”
The participants of the fans' pilgrimage themselves spoke about the desecration, but towards people holding a banner with the slogan “Poland is for everyone.”
– The process of using the Church for political purposes has begun again. Again, using a space that is important for all believers, regardless of who they vote for and what political views they have, for their own political interests. I hope that the Church will firmly distance itself from this, says Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense.
Father Paweł Gużyński, who led the “Church free from politics” campaign before the previous parliamentary elections, intends to continue it this year.
– We will publicize it, show it and condemn it as much as possible, because it is in the best interest of the Church for the Church to regain its authority as a religious community – points out Father Paweł Gużyński, a Dominican.
After the meeting with Karol Nawrocki, the priests thanked the “faithful and brave” fans.
Main photo source: PAP/Waldemar Deska