By Hilary White
BRUSSELS, December 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The new government of Poland, under Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, or OP) party, has agreed to the establishment of a European Union “World Day against the Death Penalty”, dismissing the objections of the previous pro-life government.
The day was proposed in 2006 by the Presidency of the EU with a document that declared, “The European Union considers the death penalty as a cruel and inhuman punishment and a violation to the right to life”. This reference to the “right to life” was criticised in Poland as an inherent contradiction coming from the heavily abortion and euthanasia-supporting EU. Countries requesting admission to the European Union must have laws outlawing the death penalty.
Under the previous government led by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish diplomats to the EU had refused to agree to the symbolic observance unless opposition to abortion and euthanasia were included in the concept of a “right to life.”
The Polish Justice Minister, Zbigniew Cwiakalski, told local media, “The Portuguese have asked us where we stand on the day (against death penalty). We decided that there are no obstacles for us to support the initiative.” After the agreement of Polish representatives, the European Union justice ministers approved unanimously the date of October 10 as a joint day against capital punishment.
Krzysztof Bosak, of the League of Polish Right (LPR), who is also a member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, told Polish Radio in September, “I think it is hypocritical on the part of the EU to promote abortion, destructive lifestyles and euthanasia and at the same time to pretend to care about the right to life in only one case – death penalty.”
Donald Tusk’s new government was widely hailed, including by homosexual activists, as being likely to establish more accommodating relations with the European Union. Tusk said during election campaigns that improving relations with the EU would be a high priority for his government and pledged to swiftly abolish his country’s national currency to adopt the Euro.
Bosak, elected at 23 as the second youngest Polish parliamentarian ever elected, added that because the death penalty is already illegal in the European Union, “maybe it is time to consider protecting the right to life of other social groups”.
“Maybe it is time to establish a European Day of Life to protect also the weakest and most innocent – children before birth, especially those diagnosed with a disability, they are exterminated on a mass scale across Europe. But also to protect the disabled who are already born, the sick and the elderly – to save them from the tragedy of death on demand, or euthanasia,” said Bosak.
The European Union had previously issued threats and condemnations after the country elected a strongly pro-life government in 2005. Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw were strongly opposed to the EU’s push for universal abortion, euthanasia and the spread of the homosexual political movement.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Poland Insists EU “Right to Life” Venture against Death Penalty Should Include Abortion and Euthanasia
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091807.html