Last weekend’s state funeral at Krakow’s Wawel Castle of President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria, victims of the plane crash at Smolensk (April 10), was broadcast live by Ukraine’s First and Fifth Channels. It was a memorable view of a great nation shouldering a disaster.
It was important for the Ukrainian audiences to watch the funeral ceremony attended by the current and former heads of state, Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko, along with ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. By attending the somber event they let our nation see they had learned a lesson in unity and solidarity with a neighboring country at that time of ordeal. This was also an opportunity to revise one’s role in politics, in one’s own country.
All of Europe’s leading politicians — US president included — were expected to attend the state funeral, but at the last moment many of them had to cancel their flights to Poland.
Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, declared there was no possible reason behind such small attendance on the part of Poland’s partners, stressing a possible explanation could be air transport problems, as in the case of Canada or Australia, but there was apparently no excuse for West European and Brussels functionaries failing to attend the funeral. He went on to say that this was proof that all talk about European unity was for the birds. (Klaus had to use a car to reach Warsaw, as did his Slovak and Slovenian counterparts, major politicians from other countries, among them Viktor Yushchenko).
Lech Kaczynski’s funeral was vivid proof of a leader being seen off on his last trip, with the entire nation paying homage. After his tragic death the Poles became united by their grief.
