Monument to late President Lech Kaczyński unveiled

Speaking at the unveiling, Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland's ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, said that his brother had been a man of deep faith, an effective politician and was guided by goodness "which he put before political gain."

"That is a rare combination in politics … It is also a reason why he should be honoured, remembered," Kaczyński added.

He also said that his brother – who in his lifetime had been involved in anti-communist protests, helped create the Solidarity movement, was an MP, senator, justice minister, mayor of Warsaw and president of Poland – had earned the monument not because he "advanced as high as possible" but because he fought "postcommunism," which Jarosław Kaczyński said was a system "incomparably better than the one before it" but still deeply flawed.

President Andrzej Duda said Lech Kaczyński deserved the monument because "there has not been so great a leader of the Polish state since the time of Józef Piłsudski" who is considered the architect of Poland's independence.

Duda added that the former president had served his country throughout his adult life and ended up dying for Poland.

Smolensk disaster

On April 10, 2010, a Polish plane carrying President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 94 others – including top political and military figures – crashed while trying to land near Smolensk, western Russia, killing all those on board.

The PiS party has long challenged an official report into the 2010 crash issued by Poland’s previous government, which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport.

A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

PiS has launched its own inquiry into the crash which, in initial findings, suggested the plane was probably destroyed by a mid-air explosion, and that Russian air traffic controllers deliberately misled the Polish pilots about their location as the presidential plane approached the runway of the Smolensk military airport in 2010. (vb)

Source: PAP, IAR