Police have detained a man after a Nazi swastika and words comparing Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to Hitler were daubed on the walls of an historic church.
The vile symbol and insulting language was emblazoned on the Church of Peace in the Polish town Świdnica on Friday January 13 close to the Czech Republic border.
Newspaper Gazety Wyborcze reports a man has been charged for the crime of “insulting a public official or a constitutional body”. The crime carries a potential jail sentence of up to two years.
He could also be charged with damaging culturally important property and monuments, which can be punishable by up to ten years in prison.
The wooden Protestant Holy Trinity Church of Peace is a 17th century UNESCO World Heritage-listed site. Bishop Waldemar Pytel, the parish priest, told the Ekumenizm.pl website: “We hope that the guilty will be held accountable.”
He added: “The atmosphere in the country is extremely tense and escalating…[But] we cannot overcome hatred with hatred, because it will escalate hostility even more.”
Elsewhere in Poland farmers have been protesting about imports from Ukraine and earlier this month blockaded a border crossing before reaching an agreement with the government that met their demands, Poland’s state news agency PAP reported.
The frustration of the farmers was one of the challenges facing the new Polish government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which seeks to support Ukraine while also addressing the demands of Polish farmers and truckers whose livelihoods have been hurt by the war.
Fresh from a visit to Kyiv, Tusk said that the Ukrainian authorities “are not interested in the uncontrolled export” of their produce, but want it to be regulated.
Talks will take place in Warsaw in March, Tusk said.
Polish farmers describe competition from Ukraine as “unfair” and denounce EU tax-free trade with the country, saying that it’s undercutting their livelihoods. They are also protesting against European pro-environment regulations, saying it reduces their output and earnings.
