Kornel Morawiecki, the father of Poland’s prime minister who was also the country’s most senior lawmaker and a leading dissident during the communist era, died on Monday this week following a long illness. He was 78 years old.
Kornel Morawiecki, who had the title of Senior Speaker of Parliament, recently had been awarded Poland’s highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, for decades of service to democracy Poland.
In the 1980s, he founded the Fighting Solidarity group, which fought against communist rule and opposed any negotiations or deals with the regime. The group was an uncompromising splinter off the nationwide pro-democracy Solidarity movement.
His son Mateusz, then a teenager, was an activist.
Mr. Morawiecki went into hiding after communist authorities imposed martial law to crack down on the pro-democracy movement in December 1981, and he was involved in clandestine printing of anti-communist brochures. He changed his hideouts 50 times before being caught in 1987 and imprisoned for months.
The communists then deported him. After a few months in Austria, Italy and the United States, he surreptitiously returned to Poland under an assumed name.
Black-and white footage on state TV showed the moment of his deportation: Mr. Morawiecki was seen refusing to climb the steps to the plane, and secret security plainclothes officers led him up by force.
Mr. Morawiecki was highly critical of Solidarity’s 1989 roundtable talks with the regime that peacefully ousted the communists from power. He described it as a deal that only marginally improved the communist system but failed to end its influence.
Political friends and foes have joined forces to pay their respects to the statesman in an unusual show of solidarity.
Poland’s most powerful politician, ruling party head Jaroslaw Kaczynski, expressed “great sorrow” and called Mr. Morawiecki an “outstanding freedom activist” and “steadfast person.”
And European Council President Donald Tusk, who was Poland’s premier from 2007 to 2014, tweeted words of sympathy to Mateusz Morawiecki, who is his political foe.
The state funeral is being held today 12 noon at the Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw.
IN OTHER NEWS
In other news, Pope Francis has recognized a miracle attributed to late Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, a prominent church leader who defended the country’s religious freedom under communism, a step which puts him closer to possible sainthood.
Wyszyński was known for his open resistance to the nazi German occupation as well as Soviet imposed communism and for his efforts to protect the Catholic Church when Poland was under communist rule. Between 1953 and 1956, even though he was the most senior official in the church, he was imprisoned by the communists.
He died of cancer in May 1981, at the age of 79.
WEATHER
Today there will be a scattering of light rain showers which will ease as the day progresses. There will be sunny intervals throughout the day with a moderate breeze from the north east and temperatures will reach 9 degrees centigrade 48 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and will drop to a chilly 3 degrees centigrade, 37 degrees Fahrenheit during the night. Sunday will continue in the theme of light rain showers and sunny intervals.
