History / Lefties honour Narutowicz [5]

The SLD and Palikot movement held a rally outside Warsaw’s Zachęta Gallery, where Poland’s first president Gabriel Narutowicz was assassinated 90 years ago. SLD leader Leszek Miller told the rally: “The SLD will do everything to stop the march of the brown (shirted) right wing. We cannot allow Poland to turn brown. It is white and red as well as blue with gold stars.” Palikot delivered his 7-point programme to combat hate speech. The event was attended by Presidential adviser Tomasz Nałęcz and mainly leftist-liberal politicians and celebrities. Narutowicz was shot dead by “endek” (nationalist) Eligiusz Niewiadomski who espoused a “Poland for Poles’ philosophy and resented the fact that the president had been elected thanks to Jewish and Ukrainian votes in the general assembly.

A day before the leftist Zachęta rally rightists from the All-Poland Youth and the Radical National Camp marched through the streets of £ódź under the slogan “Anti-commies are coming”, the media reported over the weekend. They included a chant well-known in the early Solidarity period: “Instead of leaves, commies will hang from the trees!” Police estimated the crowd at 500, the organisers gave figures several times higher.