Farewell to Pawel Adamowicz: Tens of thousands of people participated in the funeral of the murdered mayor of the Polish city of Gdańsk on Saturday. Among the mourners in St. Mary's Church were President Andrzej Duda, Solidarity co-founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa and EU Council President Donald Tusk, a longtime friend of the murdered man. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and many mayors from home and abroad also took part in the ceremony.
The funeral service was broadcast on screens in several places in the city. Photos of the mayor were displayed in countless display cases of shops, cafes and restaurants. Tens of thousands of people had been queuing for some hours in recent days to see the coffin covered with white flowers and the red flag of the city of Gdansk and to register in the book of condolence of the European Solidarity Center (ECS). Adamowicz's grave will be located in St. Mary's Church, one of the world's largest brick churches.
JAKUB KACZMARCZYK / EPA-EFE / REX
On screens in Gdańsk, the funeral service will be broadcast.
Many Poles see the 53-year-old Liberal politician's assassination last Sunday as a result of the hate speech and continued party riot against him, especially between the liberal-conservative Civic Platform (PO) and the right-wing nationalist ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS).
Adamowicz had campaigned for the reception of refugees in Gdansk and supported actions in defense of the rule of law against the attempts of the PiS to take control of the judiciary. At the 2018 election, he received two-thirds of the vote.
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Procession on the eve of the funeral
An attacker had stabbed Adamowicz on Sunday during a charity event on the open stage. One day later, the mayor succumbed to his serious injuries. A video shows the man grabbing a microphone after the knife attack and shouting that the former citizen platform government had innocently sent him to jail. "That's why Adamowicz dies!"
According to media reports, the perpetrator has in the past been sentenced to more than five years in prison for armed bank robberies. Accordingly, he suffered in prison increasingly under mental problems. The perpetrator has been investigated for murder.