Poles at odds over cross in front of presidential palace

In recent days opponents and proponents of the cross set up in front of the Polish presidential palace have gathered in Warsaw to demonstrate. The cross is dedicated to the memory of President Lech Kaczyński, who died earlier this year in a plane crash. The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung analyses the situation: "Catholic Poland is at war with itself. On the surface it's the conservative ruling party and the national-conservative opposition who are fuelling the conflict. But the bishops are the real culprits. They were the ones who fought for the president to be buried in the Wawel Cathedral after the plane crash near Smolensk. ... But why bury a largely unsuccessful and unpopular president next to kings, national heroes and poets? In the end the dispute over the cross is really about the status of religion and the Church in Poland's democratic society. The demonstrations and also the surveys of recent days show that the overwhelming majority of Poles do indeed attach great importance to the separation between church and state."

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