Smolensk Memorial Cross Removed from Outside Presidential Palace

The wooden cross put up by scouts in front of the presidential palace to commemorate the late president Lech Kaczynski and other victims of the Smolensk plane crash was unexpectedly moved to the presidential chapel yesterday morning.

The cross will later be transferred to the nearby St. Anne’s University Church, Presidential Chancellery head Jacek Michalowski said at a press conference.

Major opposition party PiS found the move "scandalous", PiS MPs commented for PAP.

The cross, which appeared on Warsaw’s Krakowskie Przedmieście Street in front of the Presidential Palace a few days after the tragic plane crash on April 10 has, since then, come to symbolize the division of Polish society.

The inscription on a plate attached to the cross read, “This cross is an appeal from scouts to the authorities and society to build a monument on this site.”

Later, on July 10, the newly elected President Bronisław Komorowski had suggested that the cross should be moved from the front of the Presidential Palace to another, more suitable location.

But politicians from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and its leader Jarosław Kaczyński, the twin brother of the late president Lech Kaczyński, stood up to “defend” the cross.

Guards of honor were placed around the cross. Meanwhile, across the street, people started to collect signatures for a petition to remove it.
On July 21, it seemed that the problem would be resolved. “The cross was going to be transferred in a procession to a nearby St. Anne’s University Church The agreement was made between the President’s Office and church officials in Warsaw as well as scouting organizations. The date of the transfer was set at Aug. 3.

Polish officials however, had to call off the ceremony, as hundreds of people gathered there to stop the procession.

The city guards and police had to hold back crowds of “the defenders of the cross” trying to force a barrier across the street. Protesters demanded the cross remain until a permanent memorial to the crash victims is set up in its place.

After consultations with church officials Michalowski announced that the cross would stay at the palace, but did not say for how long.

On the night of Aug. 9, Krakowskie Przedmieście Street saw a demonstration of several thousand people protesting against the presence of the cross in front of the Presidential Palace. The demonstration, organized through Facebook, attracted mainly young people who tried to ridicule the “defenders” of the cross.

A PiS delegation turned up at the cross Aug. 10 in the morning to mark four months since the Smolensk crash. Jarosław Kaczyński, accompanied by a number of parliamentarians, placed wreaths and prayed at the cross for several minutes to the applause of the people gathered at the site.

The “cross defenders” have said they are going to hold vigil outside the Presidential Palace until a proper memorial is placed there.