Threatening church means threatening Poland and cannot be tolerated, says Kaczyński

If Poland is to have a future, attacks on the Catholic church must not be tolerated, says Jarosław Kaczyński, chairman of the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The church’s mission is closely linked with Polishness and Polish history, and anyone who threatens one is also threatening the other, argued Kaczyński, who warned that internal and external “enemies are trying to destroy Poland”.

His remarks came during a speech outside a church in his mother’s home town of Starachowice, where he had attended a mass commemorating the ninth anniversary of her death and unveiled a plaque in her honour. The event was broadcast live on state television.

After a group of protesters heckled Kaczyński, he told those present – who also included his fellow deputy prime minister Jacek Sasin and local PiS MPs – that, “if our Polish nation is to have a future, it must endure and not be disrupted, as we saw a moment ago”.

Opponents of Kaczyński’s visit could be heard shouting “Get out of here”, “Go home” and “You’ll serve time” when he left the church, reports Onet. His speech was then met with whistles and chants of “Free Poland”.

“This is something that must not be tolerated,” continued Kaczyński, quoted by Polsat News. “It is not the sphere of freedom. It is…raising a hand to the church, which also means raising a hand to Poland.”

Kaczyński then called the protesters “successors of the Fourth Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, a reference to part of the security services during the communist period. PiS sees its opponents as “post-communist” successors of the former regime.

This was the department that “fought against the church and Polishness”, which has now “passed on to the next generations”, Kaczyński continued. “And the great error made after 1989, the lack of punishment, failure to deal properly with all that, is still a burden on us”.

PiS argues that Poland did not properly reckon with the former communist regime after 1989, and that the same political and legal elites retained their positions and privilege. It has used these arguments to justify its controversial overhaul of the judicial system as well as to attack its political opponents.

“But I believe that the time will come, and this will also fulfil the testament of the generation my mother belonged to, and…this will be a very useful event for Poland, building a good future for us,” he concluded.

Kaczyński also spoke of his mother’s activity in the church as well as underground organisations including the “Grey Ranks”, a paramilitary scouting association operating during World War II which resisted the Nazi German occupation.

“My mother’s generation passed on to their children memories whose message was Polish patriotism, faithfulness to Poland, and rejection of communism,” said Kaczyński, quoted by public broadcaster TVP.

“It was they, often paying with their lives, who built the foundations for the free Polish Republic,” he added. “We must remember that by rejecting everything and everyone who threatens it…who is today trying to destroy Poland from all sides, collaborating closely with our external enemies.”

The head of TVP – a former PiS politician – also recently also warned that “external” forces are seeking to “overthrow the government” and “destroy the Polish state” with the “participation of a fifth column” within Poland.

Kaczyński has also previously used the anniversary of his mother’s death to make similar speeches. Last year, speaking inside the church itself, he warned that “evil is attacking our country, our fatherland, our nation, it is attacking the institution that is at the heart of our identity, the Catholic church

Main image credit: Jakub Porzycki / Agencja Gazeta

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.