Mayor’s murder touches off grieving, soul-searching
WARSAW, Poland — The popular liberal mayor of Gdansk died Monday after being stabbed at a charity event by an ex-convict with a history of violent crime.
The killing plunged the country into shock and grief and brought Poles into the streets for solemn vigils in a rare show of national unity.
Pawel Adamowicz, 53, died from the wounds inflicted by a 27-yearold man who stormed onstage Sunday evening while the mayor was addressing an audience during the finale of a nationwide fundraiser for sick children.
The assailant rushed up and stabbed him three times, then grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that he acted in revenge against the country’s main opposition party, Civic Platform. Adamowicz had been a member of the party for many years but left it in 2015.
With the music still playing and pyrotechnics erupting onstage, the attacker told the stunned crowd he had been wrongly imprisoned under a Civic Platform-led government.
Adamowicz was taken to a hospital, where doctors struggled to save him, but a five-hour operation and blood transfusions were not enough, given the gravity of the injuries.
The assassination comes as the nation is torn by bitter political divisions that are similar in many ways to those in the United States.
Donald Tusk, a founder of Civic Platform who was prime minister when the attacker was imprisoned and who is now president of the European Council, joined mourners in Gdansk, also his hometown.
The assassination also initiated some soul-searching about whether security is as stringent as it should be in a country where most people enjoy a general sense of safety. The assailant got access to the stage using a media pass.