Solidarity activist given second funeral

Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks at Friday's burial: photo - PAP/Adam Warzawa

The funeral in Walentynowicz's native Gdansk was attended by a number of prominent politicians from conservative opposition party Law and Justice (PiS).

Speaking at the graveside in Gdansk's Srebrzysko cemetery, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice, stated that Walentynowicz had been “the purest current” in the Solidarity trade union.

The burial followed a bitter two days in Poland's lower house of parliament, after the country's Supreme Military Prosecutor's Office revealed on Tuesday that in the light of a second autopsy, it could be confirmed that the 2010 burial in Gdansk had involved the wrong coffin.

On Monday, Kaczynski had claimed at an economics conference that he hoped that the “terrible war” between his party and that of Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Civic Platform) would come to an end.

However, today his party called for a debate on a vote of no confidence in the government.

Justice Minister Jaroslaw Gowin told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Friday that “the atmosphere of yesterday's debate did not suggest that this war was supposed to be over.”

The Smolensk crash, which killed the entire delegation of President Lech Kaczynski – twin brother of the current Law and Justice leader – has been central to the so-called “Polish-Polish war” that Gowin referred to.

At today's funeral service, banners could be seen declaring that the air crash was “an attack". This controversial theory – chiefly levelled at alleged Russian culprits – has been repeatedly championed by Law and Justice.

Anna Walentynowicz was central to the genesis of the Solidarity Movement. It was her firing from the former Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk – on account of her participation in an illegal trade union – that prompted the now legendary strike led by Lech Walesa in August 1980. (nh)