To the last Catholic. Election fight in Poland after the death of Francis

The most tangible consequence is the postponement of Saturday's performance to be a government celebration of the 1000th anniversary of Bolesław Chrobry's coronation. The concert, coerced by the opponent, awakened malice – for example ironic questions, whether artists, as an environment known alternatively from rainbow fascinations, will now begin to praise the Christian identity and king, who, among others, won Kiev and conducted a trial with paganism in the name of the Holy Trinity and Christ of the Lord.

Well, you play like your opponent plays. The performance was convened by Donald Tusk, but it is known that he was actually expected to show that not only the PiS remembered a thousand-year legacy, but above all it was to service the glory of Rafał Trzaskowski. Is that what caused president Duda to announce the day of mourning next Saturday? It can't be ruled out.

This explanation most likely favoured the sympathetic commentators, accusing the president that erstwhile Benedict XVI died, he did not proclaim mourning. The problem is that Joseph Ratzinger was not the Pope at the time, and there were no another precedents in the 3rd Republic – the announcement of mourning after the death of John Paul II was obvious.

Meanwhile, another Catholic countries have even announced respective days of mourning (e.g. Spain, Portugal, Argentina). All this, however, shows how rapidly and how much the temporal aspect of the Pope's death touches our policy – and how this impact will increase.

The Transformation of Brother Rafal

Especially since for respective weeks Poland has been observing the miracle of pre-election conversion in 1 of the candidates. While most politicians or this openly emphasize their attitude towards matters of religion (Magdalena Biejat, Grzegorz Braun), others average it a bit or effort not to abuse it (Karol Nawrocki, Sławomir Mentzen, Szymon Hołownia), in the case of 1 of the candidates we are dealing with a real revolution.

The clergy, repeating behind Saint Luke, that heaven's greater joy of 1 converted sinner than of the 99 righteous, could celebrate. Of course, provided that what we are dealing with would be considered an authentic phrase, alternatively than a pre-election falsification affecting many of the most crucial people.

It is, of course, about the late revealed spiritual identity of Rafał Trzaskowski. Until recently, the president of Warsaw was considered to be a policy derived from the core of the Liberal elite, on matters of religion – at best – indifferent.

The actions of the town hall or Warsaw city council in the time of its regulation in Warsaw in the area of spiritual matters symbolized, first of all, various buoys with Catholic symbolism or with commemorations of John Paul II. Fears have never been complete, which may propose that president Trzaskowski's alleged anti-clericism was rather "working".

However, there are no shortages of people – and those writing these words include them – who think that it is even more so with the spiritual identity that has been advertised for respective decades. Here, in interviews, he talks about the peculiar influence that the catechet had on him during his childhood, the Easter saint turns out to be a peculiarly strong spiritual experience, and he himself appears to be a man profoundly experiencing issues related to the historical identity of the state and nation.

Surface laicisation

The “spirit” metamorphosis of the president of Warsaw before the elections is nothing peculiar – just mention Kamala Harris. All the more reason to test it all in the coming weeks.

First, we will witness a papal funeral, then a dispute over who will be his successor, and yet a conclave and white smoke over the Vatican. In many Poles it will awaken sentiment, due to the fact that people of my generation and younger people saw specified a view on tv only erstwhile – erstwhile Pope Pole died.

Therefore, for this time, the controversy surrounding Francis' political failures, especially in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine, will come to a second stage. Politicians will gotta respond to these emotions, so the president of Warsaw will change even more. What about his rival? That's right – Karol Nawrocki's staff has a problem here.

His religiousness and attachment to Christian-Latin identity are much more apparent and easy to prove. However, the staff have another problem – they cannot show their candidate as a devoit or spiritual radical. Hence, the subject of his hard stand on abortion was rapidly escaped. On the another hand, they cannot let the “metamorphosis” of Trzaskowski to let him to take over even 1 percent of the voters. So the fight will be fought to the last Catholic.

By the way, there is an example of a declared atheist who won the presidential election twice, or Alexander Kwasniewski. The problem is that he never had an anti-cleric opinion, and besides cordial contacts with any episcopal representatives were even to be a origin of image problems.

An example of Kwasniewski and today's forced image change of Rafał Trzaskowski show, however, that opinions on deep laicization, which was expected to happen in fresh decades or years in Poland, can be exaggerated. Or – if anything – it is very superficial. possibly much more than, according to many critics or anti-clericists, Catholicism is superficial in Poland.

Viktor Shinelik