POLAND: Poland's conservative president, Lech Kaczynski, could be on a collision course with the EU after urging member states to restore the death penalty.
Mr Kaczynski's statement yesterday was only the latest to raise the hackles of Polish and foreign liberals, who have denounced him for banning gay marches while mayor of Warsaw and calling the organisers "perverts".
"Countries who give up this penalty award an unimaginable advantage to the criminal over his victim, the advantage of life over death," Mr Kaczynski told Polish radio, explaining why he thought murderers should be executed.
"We need to discuss this in Europe," Mr Kaczynski added. "I think that with time Europe will change its view in this regard."
The EU's 15 older member states abandoned capital punishment in the late 1960s, while the 10 countries that joined in 2004 - of which Poland is the biggest - were obliged to abandon it as a condition of accession.
Mr Kaczynski came to power last autumn alongside his Law and Justice party, which now governs Poland's 38 million people in a coalition with populist and nationalist parties that are wary of Brussels. His identical twin brother, Jaroslaw, was appointed prime minister this month.
Law and Justice pushed for the restoration of the death penalty while in opposition in 2004, and was warned upon taking power that any attempt to reinstate capital punishment could have grave consequences for Poland.
Andreas Gross, a Swiss member of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, said last September that such a move would breach Warsaw's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
"On a serious issue like this, they must ask the nation in a referendum first," Mr Gross said. "Cancelling the ratification of the convention would put in question Poland's membership of the Council of Europe."
