Main focus of Monday, August 7, 2006

The Polish debate on the death penalty

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has spoken out in favour of the death penalty, and the League of Polish Families (LPR), which forms part of the ruling coalition, is collecting signatures in a campaign aimed at forcing a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty. The death penalty has not been enforced in Poland since 1988 and was banned in 1997. The campaign has drawn heavy criticism from both the EU and the Council of Europe.

Le Figaro - France

"Has the Polish government forgotten that the death sentence is banned in all EU states and that its abolition is actually a condition for joining ?," wonders Arielle Thedrel. "During last year's legislative and presidential elections the Kaczynski brother who championed the fight against corruption and crime made capital punishment a campaign issue. As this autumn's local elections draw closer they doubtless hope that launching the 'debate' will once again prove a winner. Nothing is less certain, however. Although surveys show that a majority of Poles are in favour of capital punishment, they also reveal that more of them (between 53 % and 56 %) trust European institutions than their own government (22 %)." (07/08/2006)

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Życie Warszawy - Poland

In a guest commentary Zbigniew Holda, a Krakow-based law professor working with the "Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights" in Poland, is bitterly critical of the calls to reintroduce the death penalty in Poland. "I knew it wouldn't be long before the League of Polish Families started a campaign to reintroduce the death penalty for paedophile offenders. It's probably only taken this long because they were waiting for the right moment – for a spectacular murder to hit the headlines. Thank God nothing like that has happened. The worst thing is that the president and justice minister have also joined the campaign. The reaction was swift: the EU and the Council of Europe have issued warning statements… I congratulate these politicians on their tactfulness, which we have to thank for Poland's increasingly poor international reputation. We're reinforcing the image of Poland as a backwater cut off from Europe's civilised heritage." (05/08/2006)

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Berlingske - Denmark

According to the Danish newspaper, Eastern Europe's Right is back the way it was in the pre-communist era: reactionary, nationalistic, frequently anti-Semitic and distrustful of personal freedom and the market economy. The newspaper points to Poland, where it says the increasingly vocal calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty are clear evidence of such an attitude. "The death penalty is an intensely cruel and degrading punishment. It has no place in modern Europe. If President Kaczynski's views really are translated into law, Poland will not only break its ties with good society, it will jeopardise its membership of the EU and the Council of Europe. Despite all its anti-European rhetoric, I don't believe the Polish government will go that far." (07/08/2006)

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Delfi - Latvia

Arvids Kalme defends those who want to reintroduce the death penalty in Poland. "Every gardener knows that weeds kill cultivated plants if they're not pulled out in time. This is also true for human society. But the demagogic 'humanists' won't admit it and are forcing us to put up with all kinds of perversions and crimes. Should we really let 'Western civilisation' decline and fall apart like the Roman Empire did?... It's time we come to our senses and impose the death penalty in cases where guilt is irrefutable and there's a danger of re-offending. In Poland this has already been understood and people are ignoring all the outraged protests from the EU." (07/08/2006)

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