Author: Joanna Berendt / Source: New York Times
Agencja Gazeta/Reuters
WARSAW — The mayor of Gdansk, Poland, a leading liberal critic of the populist, right-wing national government, died on Monday after being stabbed at a public charity concert Sunday night, the minister of health told reporters.
Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, 53, the mayor of the northern port city since 1998, was known as a supporter of gay rights, and he had campaigned for the rights of immigrants in a country whose governing party has leaned heavily on anti-immigrant rhetoric.
“It was impossible to win against everything that had happened to him,” Lukasz Szumowski, the health minister, said of the stabbing. “God rest his soul.”
The attack stunned a nation that is increasingly divided politically, and rallies scheduled for Monday night to condemn violence and hate speech were expected to draw large crowds.
Police officials said the assailant was arrested at the scene, and described him as a 27-year-old, mentally disturbed man with a history of violence and no clear political motive.
The attack took place at the nation’s largest charity event, held every year to raise money for medical equipment. It was just before 8 p.m. Sunday, and tens of thousands of people had gathered for a concert to promote the charity.
A countdown had begun to signal the start of an extravagant laser light show called “Light to the Sky.” One second before fireworks were set to explode, a young man burst onto the stage and stabbed Mr. Adamowicz several times, including in the heart.
The assailant then circled the podium waving a black knife and screamed that he had been thrown in jail under Civic Platform, the political party to which the liberal mayor once belonged.
“That’s why I killed Adamowicz,” the man shouted.
Mr. Adamowicz’s injuries included “a deep wound to the heart, a wound to diaphragm and other injuries of internal organs,” doctors at Medical University of Gdansk said. Despite their efforts to save him, he died Monday afternoon.
As the city went into mourning, Poland grappled with the question of whether the toxic and aggressive tone of the country’s political debate could have instigated the attack.
The conservative governing party was quick to condemn the assault.
“We usually disagree with Mr. Mayor Pawel Adamowicz when it comes to political views on…
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