Poland’s hate climate ‘linked’ to mayor murder

THOUSANDS of Poles packed the streets of Gdansk yesterday to bid farewell to the city’s mayor who was murdered in a crime that has prompted warnings of a growing climate of hate.

Pawel Adamowicz died last Monday after being stabbed multiple times during a charity event the night before. His attacker, a man with a history of violence who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, only got out of prison last month.

He made no attempt to flee and said Adamowicz had to die because his old party, Civic Platform, was responsible for his incarceration.

While there was no evidence to suggest a political motive, Rafal Dutkiewicz, a former mayor of Wroclaw and a friend of Mr Adamowicz, claimed that a growing atmosphere of hatred in Polish politics had played its part. “There is definitely a link,” he told journalists. “The deepness of the hate is great. There is a Polish expression: ‘when you plant the seeds of wind, you get a storm’.”

Those who agree with Mr Dutkiewicz argue that the Polish government has helped foster an atmosphere of hate and intolerance. Meanwhile, far-right groups have moved closer to the centre, apparently emboldened by the change in political atmosphere.

“As mayors we got threats and I am pretty sure the political tension and the climate of debate made it happen,” said Mr Dutkiewicz. He, Mr Adamowicz and nine other mayors received “political death certificates” from The All-Polish Youth, a nationalist group, after signing a positive statement on refugees.

“In such a situation the state should react against the dissemination of hate... but there was no reaction from the government, the courts or the state,” he said.