In April 2010, Bronisław Komorowski was already the future candidate of the Civic Platform in the upcoming presidential election. In organization primaries he defeated Radosław Sikorski. However, he did not know at the time that his duties as head of state would come before he won the election. This state of affairs found him on Saturday 10 April 2010, erstwhile a government plane crashed in the morning in Russian Smolensk.
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Bronisław Komorowski received a call from Radosław Sikorski. "Get ready"
Article 131. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland obliges the talker of the Sejm to execute the duties of head of state until the election of the fresh President. This happens, among others, in the event of death. 3 years earlier, erstwhile Bronisław Komorowski included the function of marshal, he treated the evidence as a “complete abstraction” and “pure theory”.
“I even got greedy at the authors of the constitution that they seemingly went crazy and wrote specified nonsense most likely just to justify the thought that the marshal was the second individual in the country,” Komorowski recalled in the book Teresa Toranska “Smolensk”.
After a call from Radosław Sikorski, Minister of abroad Affairs, he realized that the situation described in the Constitution was a “dramaic reality”. He learned that on board the plane that crashed in Smolensk there was, among others, president Lech Kaczyński.
“ Sikorski said he had a message from our ambassador in Moscow that a presidential plane had crashed. But he doesn't know the consequences. After a fewer minutes, he called again. [...] There were 2 sentences. That most likely no 1 survived and “be prepared” due to the fact that there was a condition foreseen in the Constitution,” he continued.
Bronisław Komorowski on his way to meet journalists. 10 April 2010Paweł Supernak / PAP
Bronisław Komorowski gave his first message. ‘It was short’
The next fewer moments after Sikorski called, they were tense. Komorowski tried to contact the most crucial politicians in the country. His wife Anna Komorowska in the same conversation with Toranska admitted that it was very tense 20-25 minutes. The pair were then located in a agrarian home in Buda Ruska, Sejneńszczyń. Shortly after making the telephone calls, they got in the car and went to Warsaw.
In the car, they listened to messages with the names of the victims, and the marshal kept calling. Then he decided he had to make his first individual decisions. "My aim was to guarantee the continuity of the functioning of crucial state institutions. I thought 2 decisions were most important. Appointing President's Chancellery and Head of the National safety Bureau," he said. He emphasized that he needed people in those positions he could full trust.
"I did not become President, I was just taking over the duties of head of state due to the fact that she was dead. In order to become president, I inactive had to win the election," Komorowski said in a conversation with Radio One.
A fewer hours later Komorowski gave his first message to the nation as acting president. ‘It was short. I wanted it to be meaningful. I wanted to give the public a signal that despite the tragedy, the President's death, almost the full command of the Polish Army, ministers, the most prominent political organization activists, the Polish state is and functions," he stated in an interview with Toranska.
Bronisław Komorowski during a message to the nation. 10 April 2010Paweł Supernak / PAP
Bronisław Komorowski won the presidential election. He resigned as talker of the Sejm
Komorowski's first commonly applicable legal act was the regulation of 10 April 2010 on the introduction of national mourning from 10 to 16 April.
As acting head of the Komorowski State on 18 April he participated in ceremony ceremonies of Lech and Maria Kaczyński in Krakow. As host of the ceremony, he accepted condolences from a abroad delegation.
On April 21, Komorowski issued a resolution to order an early presidential election for June 20. Originally, the vote was scheduled for the fall. On May 8, he made a two-day visit to Russia to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of planet War II.
“I mainly functioned on the basis of the Sejm, due to the fact that I was the talker of the Sejm, and only went to the Palace to bow to Leszek Kaczyński’s coffin. I didn't want it to be so that the full Kaczyński crew didn't feel someway tight, threatened," said Radio 1 in 2025.
Komorowski served as head of state until 8 July 2010. In the meantime he competed in the presidential election, in which he defeated Jarosław Kaczyński on 4 July in the second round. 4 days later, he resigned as talker of the Sejm, and for a minute the presidential duties were taken over by Marshal of the legislature Bogdan Borusewicz.
Bronisław Komorowski together with his wife during the Mass for the victims of the Smolensk disaster. 10 April 2010Leszek Szymanski / PAP
Then, until Komorowski was sworn in as president, the duties of the head of state were exercised by the fresh talker of the Sejm, Grzegorz Schetyna. Officially, Komorowski took office as president on 6 August, making his oath before the National Assembly.
