Polish parliament declares Russia terrorist state but opposition boycotts vote over Smolensk

Poland’s parliament has passed a resolution recognising Russia “as a state that supports terrorism and uses terrorist measures”. However, the vote was boycotted by the opposition due to the ruling party’s decision to include an amendment blaming Moscow for the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk that killed President Lech Kaczyński.

The resolution was approved by a narrow majority of 231 votes in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower house of parliament. All those votes came from the caucus of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party – led by Lech Kaczyński’s identical twin Jarosław – and some smaller allied groups.

There were only two votes against the resolution, from the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, and one abstention. But virtually the entire opposition – 226 MPs – chose not to take part in the vote at all.

They see the amendment mentioning Smolensk – which was added by PiS after all parties had previously agreed a different version of the text – as a way for the ruling party to legitimise its claims that the crash was caused deliberately, despite official investigations finding it was a tragic accident.

The amended text states that Russia was “directly responsible for…the crash of Polish Air Force Flight 101 in Smolensk…in which 96 people on board were killed, including the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński”. The other victims also included many high-ranking Polish officials.

The author of the amendment, Antoni Macierewicz – a former defence minister and head of a government committee devoted to reinvestigating the Smolensk crash – welcomed the adoption of the resolution.

“This is a great decision that breaks the previous Smoleńsk lies that PO has supported,” he tweeted, referring to the biggest opposition party, Civic Platform, which was in power when the crash happened. “Thank you all MPs for this decision and your courage.”

Opposition MPs, however, condemned the decision. Maciej Gdula of The Left (Lewica) said that such a resolution had to be based on “truth and unity”. But “adding the Smolensk amendment poisoned both of these by dividing the Sejm and adding a falsehood to the resolution”.

Previously, opposition parties and PiS had unanimously voted in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, to pass a resolution recognising Russia as a terrorist regime that did not include any mention of Smolensk.

The new resolution passed by the Sejm, as well as mentioning Smolensk, declares that “the forms of terror used by Russia against the citizens of Ukraine are crimes against humanity and genocide”.

Since coming to power in 2015, the PiS government has spent millions of zloty on reinvestigating the crash. While it claims to have uncovered proof that the tragedy was indeed deliberately caused, no such conclusive evidence has yet been presented.

The opposition and many commentators argue that PiS is using the issue politically, in particular as a way to attack PO, which it blames for either being involved in Russia’s decision to deliberately bring down the plane or in helping to cover it up.

PiS argues, however, that subsequent events – including Russia’s annexation of Crimea and this year’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 – shows that Moscow is willing and capable of using terrorist methods against its opponents.

Main image credit: P. Tracz/KPRM (under public domain)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.