Catholic Church leaders react to Poland's parliamentary elections

Published: 2007-10-23

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Church leaders welcomed the record turnout of voters in Poland's parliamentary elections and reacted to the defeat of the governing center-right party. "There is now a new generation which thinks differently about the state and its future. Concern for Poland has proved victorious," Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw told Poland's Catholic Information Agency, KAI, Oct. 22. However, Archbishop Slawoj Glodz of Warsaw-Praga expressed caution. "All post-communist countries face the same problem of low civic awareness -- democracy is maturing only slowly," Archbishop Glodz said in an Oct. 22 interview with Poland's Dziennik daily. "The future belongs to centrist groups, who are still seeking a clear identity of ideas without radicalism," he said. The Civic Platform party, lead by Donald Tusk, defeated the Law and Justice party of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in the Oct. 21 parliamentary elections. Fifty-three percent of the population, the highest in 18 years, turned out to vote. The Civic Platform party promised lower taxes, rapid privatization and the withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq.

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