Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has spoken out in favor of the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, deviating from the Roman Catholic Church’s position on the matter.
During a Q&A session on his Facebook page on Monday evening, the Polish leader called the abolition of the death penalty 25 years ago in Poland a “premature invention.”
“I do not agree with the teaching of the church on the matter because I am a supporter of the death penalty,” he said in response to a question, adding that in his view, “the death penalty should be admissible for the heaviest crimes.”
Both the Roman Catholic Church and the European Union oppose capital punishment; the former revised its catechism back in 2018 to reiterate the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” and affirmed its desire to “work with determination for its abolition worldwide.”
Opposition to capital punishment is enshrined in a protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights, which Poland ratified back in 2013.
The country had passed legislation abolishing the death penalty in 1997 as a precursor to EU accession talks. The last execution to take place in the country occurred on April 21, 1988, involving a man convicted of the rape and murder of his neighbor and attempted murder of his victim’s two daughters.
