Photo By Gary Raynaldo / Memorial of slain Mayor of the City of Gdańsk  Paweł Adamowicz outside Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York City on Madison Avenue.

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Pawel Adamowicz, the mayor of Gdańsk, Poland, a leading liberal critic of the populist, right-wing national government, was stabbed on stage during a national charity concert last Sunday that was witnessed by thousands. A man with a knife rushed on stage of the open-air concert and stabbed the mayor three times in the heart and abdomen. Adamowicz died the  next day from his wounds. A 27-year-old man from Gdansk has been charged with the mayor’s murder. Poland has undergone radical political change since it shook off the yoke of godless, totalitarian  Communism in 1989, with the assistance of the Solidarity Movement born out of the determination of workers in the Gdańsk shipyards.  Poland has slowly veered toward the  far-right of late.  Just last year, Nationalists burning flares and carrying fascist flags marched at same time as Poland’s major politicians.  

“The killing of Gdańsk’s mayor is the tragic result of hate speech,” 

Piotr Buras, head of the Warsaw office and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in the UK Guardian. 

“What happened to Paweł Adamowicz isn’t just a Polish problem – wherever toxic public debate is indulged, violent acts may be committed,”  Buras wrote.

“Public debate in Poland is filled with toxic content – spread so actively by the ruling party that it makes it impossible to speak of any kind of balance. State television has been turned into an instrument of brutal propaganda, spewing out hate speech and xenophobia on a daily basis,”  Buras added

Right-wing groups had threatened Adamowicz. Poland has been under the rule of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party since 2015. Two years ago, the far-right All-Polish Youth group had printed up a symbolic death certificate for the mayor: a threatened penalty for his cosmopolitanism, according to DW.com.

Poland Declares National Period of Mourning Following Gdańsk Mayor’s Death

Photo by Gary Raynaldo / Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York City on Madison Avenue with memorial of Adamowicz outside Consulate.

“The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, with profound sorrow, informs that the Mayor of the City of Gdańsk, Mr. Paweł Adamowicz passed away on Monday, January 14, 2019 as a result of stab wounds.   A period  of national mourning has been declared in Poland will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 18, 2019 and end at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 19, 2019,” the consulate announced on its website.

A Book of Condolences will be presented for signing at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York located at 233 Madison Avenue (Jan Karski Corner) New York, NY 10016 on Friday, January 18, 2019 from 8 am. to 4 pm.         

Photo by Gary Raynaldo / A man inside  Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York City signs Book of Condolences for death of Paweł Adamowicz.

Photo by Gary Raynaldo / Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York City  displays photograph of Paweł Adamowicz on table with Book of Condolences.

Photo  by Gary Raynaldo /  Book of  Condolences at Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York City.