PiS attacks PM Kopacz over Church comments

“The Church has the right to have its say on serious matters. It is even its duty,” Stanisław Karczewski, the head of the PiS campaign ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October, told Polish Radio.

“I suggest that if Ewa Kopacz doesn’t want to live in a religious country, it is clear she wants to go to another country,” Karczewski said.

Karczewski also criticised Bronisław Komorowski, saying the outgoing president "should now be saying nothing politically.” Komorowski is replaced by PiS's Andrzej Duda on 6 August.

PiS has strongly criticized the recent passage of IVF legislation, which the ruling Civic Platform (PO) government and president Komorowski passed. PiS, together with the Church, had vigorously opposed the law regulating state funding for IVF.

PiS has said it will overturn the legislation if elected in October’s general election. The party’s right of centre grouping has an about 13 percent lead over PO in the most recent poll.

Kopacz said recently that: "I don’t want to live in a religious republic. I respect the Church, the Episcopate, the bishops and our Christian traditions. But nothing will convince people whose conscience does not allow them to do something they don't want to do."

Asked about a poll by the Onet.pl website that showed 63 percent of Poles agreeing with the statement that the Church is 'too involved' in Polish public life, Karczewski said he didn’t agree. “I am one of those people who say the Church doesn’t get involved enough.” (jh)