On 13 January, Paweł Adamowicz, the Mayor of Gdańsk, was fatally stabbed during a charity event. Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer writes that while the attacker reportedly had a history of mental illness, the reaction to the murder has uncovered deep political divisions that now exist in Polish society.
Paweł Adamowicz, the Mayor of Gdańsk, was fatally stabbed on Sunday while standing on the stage in the centre of the city during the finale of the Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity winter drive, Poland’s largest and until now most joyous charity event. Although immediately hospitalised, he died on Monday.
The attacker, with a criminal record, recently released after having spent more than five years in prison, may be mentally ill. His mother had warned the police in November that he was worried by his behaviour and that he might pose a threat. On Sunday, after wounding Adamowicz, he shouted that he had been held behind bars despite being innocent and that he had been “tortured” by the Civic Platform, Poland’s main opposition party. Adamowicz used to be a member.
Adamowicz, a well-liked mayor of one of Poland’s major cities, and the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, had been recently re-elected for the fifth time. Although once conservative, he became known for his support for gay and minority rights. In the current Polish political climate, this is an act of bravery.
According to his mother, the attacker intended to grab attention. The Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity, now in its 27th year, is one of the very few events that still manages to bring Poles together. According to a recent IQS survey, it is also the most trusted institution in the country, favoured by 83% of Poles.
The Grand Orchestra was created in 1993 by Jerzy Owsiak, a radio and television host, known for his absurd sense of humour, “do watcha wanna” slogan, and a colourful, hippie vibe. The shows he created were a breath of fresh air and optimism in the still grey, yet newly democratic post-1989 Poland. The idea for the charity came from doctors who told Owsiak about lacking medical equipment for new-borns in hospitals.
He decided to use the television show as a platform to host live auctions, while volunteers on the streets collected donations. Any amount was enough to get a red heart-shaped sticker with the drive’s logo. The drive proved a tremendous success, so Owsiak repeated it the following year, and the next, until it became an institution, an awaited event held in towns and cities, and transmitted live on television on the second Sunday of every January. Since 1993, people have donated over £206 million to the Grand Orchestra.
Owsiak has been popular particularly among teenagers, who appreciate his rock & roll style, as well as the fact that two years after launching the Grand Orchestra he created Woodstock Station (now Pol’and’Rock Festival), a free summer festival, and a thank you for the volunteers who take part in the winter drive.
Popularity brings hate, which both Owsiak and Adamowicz learned to know well. For years, Owsiak has been attacked by the Polish Catholic Church hierarchs (with a few exceptions). They consider him the main competitor to people’s souls (and wallets) as he offers a secular, playful alternative for being kind. Others have repeatedly accused him of stealing money, despite several court cases that have proved otherwise. Still others, most notably members and sympathisers of the ruling Law, and Justice party and also the state-owned, currently openly party-ruled media, vilify him, trying to undermine his popularity. While the Grand Orchestra has been breaking donation records every year, notably so since the victory of Law and Justice in 2015, Owsiak recently lost his cool a number of times, to the delight of his aggressors.
Adamowicz, apart from being subject to typical attacks by his political opponents and – what since 2015 became the norm – smear campaigns produced by state-owned television, was also “declared politically dead” in 2017 on posters posing as death certificates distributed by the far-right organisation All-Polish Youth. After Adamowicz was stabbed, for a split-second government officials acted like one would normally expect. President Duda tweeted “thoughts and prayers” (albeit mentioning political differences between himself and the mayor), so did Prime minister Morawiecki and several ministers.
Tribute to Paweł Adamowicz in Gdańsk, Credit: Dan Vel (CC BY 2.0)
Then online media went back to the new “normal”, which since 2015 has meant aggressive attack mode: often violent Twitter comments posted and shared by officials and anonymous users alike, and reductionist, black-and-white accusations of who was responsible for the attack (either Law and Justice or Civic Platform), including why the victim deserved it. Little nuance has been allowed in Poland since Law and Justice’s 2015 victory, as the public sphere – major media from both sides of the political spectrum – has become dominated by two enemy camps: pro- and anti-government. Anything in between is treated as treason, or ignorance at best.
While Adamowicz was hospitalised and Owsiak was dealing with what was supposed to be the climax of a happy event, but which had turned into a national tragedy, one could notice how the hijacking into the black-and-with narrative was evolving live on Twitter. The attacker was quickly labelled either a brave fighter against the evil Civic Platform or a brainwashed follower of government propaganda, while the Grand Orchestra was boiled down to a symbol of anti-government community, or a herd of indoctrinated morons. Neither is true: the perpetrator has been acting in a manner that suggests he may be mentally ill, and the charity is supported by Poles across the political spectrum. Yet in the current climate subtleties are unnecessary distractions, instead there is the political battle of the two fighting sides.
Adamowicz died on Monday in the early afternoon. That same day Owsiak announced he would step down as the head of the Grand Orchestra. In the evening, people held silent demonstrations on the streets in Gdańsk and other cities. In Warsaw, they walked towards Zachęta Gallery, a symbolic place where in 1922 the country’s first president, Gabriel Narutowicz was murdered by a nationalist extremist.
In 2019, few believe the tragedy that took place on Sunday will reduce the level of violence in public debate. Yet I believe there is still hope: 2019 is an election year, in which Poles will choose members of the national and European parliaments. At a time when hate speech is the new normal, something as simple (one would think) as acts of civility in conversation will already provide much-needed change. And, it is important to remember that the 27-year-old Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity itself proves that despite the present toxic political atmosphere people still can and want to grow as a kind-hearted community, with more caring citizens and better human beings. This year the drive is headed to break yet another record of donations, and thousands of people are sending Owsiak public messages asking him to stay on board.
Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer will be speaking on contemporary Polish civil society at the UCL Leaders conference on 19 January at University College London
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Note: An earlier version of this article appears at PublicSeminar.org. The article gives the views of the author, not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy or the London School of Economics.
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Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer – Koźmiński University / LSE
Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management in Digital Societies at Koźmiński University, and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of Reshaping Poland’s Community after Communism: Ordinary Celebrations (Palgrave 2018).
Public opinion concerning Owsiak’s WOŚP (Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity) is more polarised than the writer allows, although the reasons for the polarisation are well explained. In particular, the strictly secular WOŚP is in direct competition with Caritas Polska, controlled by the Polish bishops. I should note that the Catholic Church has always wanted a monopoly of charitable activity, and has viewed the welfare state, for example, with reserve. The St. Vincent de Paul Society is perhaps the best known charitable arm of the Catholic Church around the world.
The efforts of PiS and other right-wing elements to discredit Owsiak and WOŚP are well known, and if, as expected, PiS retain power after the elections, we can expect a determined effort to take over WOŚP and give it to Caritas. Many people in the last year or two have supported WOŚP not just because it’s a great charity, but because it is conflicted with PiS and the Church. It is a voice of authority independent of PiS and the Church, and PiS, just as all authoritarian parties with totalitarian inclinations, is trying to take over all independent elements of civic society.
I believe Trump is having a knock on effect across the planet. Seems like more countries every day are at loggerheads and squaring up to other countries in an effort to out Trump TRUMP.
He has belittled and divided international bodies and groups of likeminded countries in favour of direct country to country negotiations. This is Very Bad. Other countries leaders are now trying to sound and act like Trump in their international relations.
It is very sad that a mentally ill person has murdered someone in cold blood. The writer of the article would like th@t to unite people but, of course, it can equally divide and entrench views and positions. Divide and rule is a very important political tactic. If the people were united no government could dictate or bully its way into power and stay there.
Very well written. One thing, the EU apparatchiks in Poland have been too eager to do the EU Commissariat’s bidding. The socalled progressives should get wiser and more tolerant of each EU member country’s sociopolitical nature. Especially the gender bender issue. Look at the UK and other countries. A lot of Poles will never accept the PC element of socio-sexual emancipation. The progressives, ar any rate, are only useful idiots being used to fulfill a political agenda for the federalistas.
@Jacob Jonker The morality (“obyczajowe”) issues in Poland are limited to civil unions, in vitro and abortion, while the whole gamut of gender politics seems to be restricted to the English-speaking Five Eyes countries, where it is mixed up in the larger sweep of “diversity politics”, which may be a product of post-colonial demographic change, tensions and guilt. None of this applies to Poland, whose only colonialist history is assuaged by the presence of a million or two Ukrainians, and which has no large racial minorities. In any case, the Polish language is so firmly “binary” in its gender constructs that the sort of gender confusion seen in the English-speaking is unlikely to ever exist. The concerns of the Polish bishops concerning “gender”, expressed over several years in opposition to the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, or “Istanbul Convention”, have been more to do with preserving traditional family roles and structures than anything else. Overall, Poles very strongly (70% or more) support Polish membership in the EU and the civilizational standards it protects.
@czarnajama. Thank you for the clarification. No need then to worry about the qwerty gender business affecting politics in Poland. Still a shame about the murder. And a shame about the schism in Polish politics. Still, my observation about progressives not taking into account the conservative values and political passions, or not enough, seems valid. Progressives always like to steam ahead regardless the rest of society, these days.
I am afraid that Dr Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer is misleading readers of the LSE Blog by presenting her evidence-less analysis and commentary.
Mr Owsiak, which is described by the author, Dr Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer as a “colourful hippie”, and victim of hate, is an extremely controversial and divisive person himself. He brutally attacked member of Polish parliament, professor Pawłowicz, for which crime he was convicted by an independent court (reference symbol of files: XXIV C 997/17). He asked the MP to improve her quality of life by “trying sex” which act will allegedly “fix her head”. Before, during one of concerts organised by him, he violently attacked an “unregistered” sun glasses seller, destroying 191 pieces of glasses. He was not convicted only because he made an agreement with the attacked person, covering damages. He also directed attacks on journalists, on 1st of March 2003 security has beaten (and banned from the concert) journalists from TVN media network, on 8th of January 2015 security on his request violently removed a TVP network journalist from a press conference. At the moment he is still in court trial, again with the same MP as before, for announcing a “Movement of Chucking her Out to the Space”. First instance of court has already found him guilty of hate speech. Last but not least, his vocabulary is far from being savoury, he was convicted in court in 2017 for swearing in public place (ie the stage of his charity concert mentioned in the opinion above).
The author of the above opinion is also claiming that Mr Owsiak won a “several court cases” and allegedly proved that his charity is “not stealing money”. It’s opposite – money flow is far from being transparent to the public. Mr Owsiak slapped one of the bloggers who were trying to find out what exactly is happening with money in his The Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity, with a court summons. He employed one of the most famous Poland’s solicitors, paying him with the charity funds. When the court asked Mr Owsiak to present listings from accounting software to prove that the blogger is incorrect with his claims, Mr Owsiak has simply withdrawn his summons, losing the case. He and his charity continuously are denying FoI requests, they lost already more than 13 court summons after refusal of requested data of money flow in the charity (court reference symbols II SAB/Wa 987/15, II SO/Wa 1/17, I OZ 1097/17 among others).
Also other strong statements are far from reality. Dr Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer writes that deceased mayor’s alleged support for gay rights was a an “act of bravery” “in the current Polish political climate”. That statement is completely unfounded, as the opinion polls clearly show that openly gay ex mayor of Słupsk city, Mr Robert Biedroń, has strong support of voters, locating his newly created party at third position among all Poland’s parties in the upcoming elections, and if he decides to join presidential election, he could get ballots of at least 25% of voters.
There is no doubt that hate speech in Poland is a massive issue, but it is an
unfounded statement that the guilt is related only to the ruling party. All
parliamentary parties and their supporters are using strong and divisive language.
The guilt is rather related to the core of capitalism and ruthless media, fighting for
attention and sponsors. Dividing the society further by expressing her
political statements, Dr Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer only deepens the problem.
Remarkable comment which deserves a reply from Ms Helena. However, there is no doubt that six years of war-occupation and Fifty years of USSR occupation and repression will have had an influence on the mindset of Eastern European people which would have caused radicalisation in a mental-emotional and ethical-political sense.
Dr. Serge Victor presents an extremely biased and exaggerated set of opinions regarding Jerzy Owsiak, as though he is simply parroting the Moscow-like Polish State TV. I’m surprised that Dr. Victor mentions Krystyna Pawłowicz with any seriousness, because this supposed professor is the most abusiveley outspoken and offensive MP in Poland’s Sejm, and in any Western Parliament she would long ago have been hounded out of public life and possibly jailed. Owsiak’s references to her were jokes, admittedly in poor taste, but provoked by her much sharper expressions of contempt. It is people like her, TVP boss Jacek Kurski and PiS Party Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski who were being referred to, but not named, as the purveyors of hate speech in Saturday’s eulogies as Paweł Adamowicz’s funeral.
While Owsiak’s style is not to everyone’s taste, his contributions to Polish life are undeniable, and the Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity is a shining beacon in Poland’s landscape. That he has been pestered with petty suits and insinuations is just the result of the nationalist Right and the Church being virulently opposed to him, for reasons I and the article’s author have explained, and because PiS is increasingly using an avalanche of vexatious law suits as a way of harrassing and pauperising the opposition and opposition-aligned media.