Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has called for unity as the country marks the 15th anniversary of a presidential plane crash that claimed the lives of all 96 on board and triggered bitter arguments about the cause of the disaster.
The tragedy was a touchstone moment for Poland, deepening rifts in society and between politicians as they sought to find answers about the cause of the crash, in which then-president Lech Kaczyński died.
Writing on X, Tusk struck a conciliatory tone: “The memory of the Smolensk catastrophe and its victims should no longer divide us. Rebuilding community and mutual respect is both possible and essential, even though it remains quite challenging; let us make an effort.”
Tusk, who was also the prime minister at the time of disaster, has often found himself in the crosshairs of the rival, right-wing Law and Justice party to which Lech Kaczyński belonged.
Kaczyński’s twin brother, Law and Justice leader Jarosław, has previously blamed Tusk for the crash, with some of his supporters even going so far as to suggest that the prime minister was part of a Kremlin plot to kill the president.
Writing on social media, President Andrzej Duda, who hails from the Law and Justice party, described the disaster as “the most painful loss in [Poland’s] modern history.”
He added: “The Smolensk catastrophe claimed the lives of the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, the First Lady, Maria Kaczyńska, and 94 members of the official delegation... representing all the most important circles of public, political and social life.”
Among others, the commanders of Poland’s army, navy and air force were killed, as well as the governor of the National Bank of Poland, the head of the National Security Bureau, senior members of the clergy and several politicians and lawmakers.
The delegation had been traveling to Smolensk, western Russia, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, a series of mass killings that saw about 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia shot by Stalin’s NKVD.
However, as the delegation’s plane approached to land in 2010, it struck a tree in heavy fog. All on board were killed. A Polish investigation the next year laid the blame on a combination of bad weather and pilot error.
Years later, a new probe initiated by the Law and Justice party claimed that the plane had been downed by explosions. That conclusion, though, has been contested by critics who say that the inquiry under Law and Justice failed to deliver any convincing evidence.
Services were held across Poland on Thursday to commemorate the tragedy, including in Kraków, where President Duda laid a wreath at the sarcophagus of Lech and Maria Kaczyński.
In Warsaw, Jarosław Kaczyński attended ceremonies at Piłsudski Square, Powązki Military Cemetery and the presidential palace.
A group of about ten protestors attempted to disrupt a service at the Smolensk crash site attended by Poland’s ambassador to Russia, Krzysztof Krajewski.
Speaking to the RMF FM radio station, Krajewski said: “They were questioning everything, also in the context of the war in Ukraine. There were already slogans that I am familiar with, that Poland is a sponsor of terrorism, that we are falsifying history.”
