Polish leaders mother finally told of his death

Perhaps the last person in Poland to learn that the countrys President was killed last month in a plane crash was his invalid mother,and it fell to his twin brother,the former Prime Minister,to break the news....

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

Perhaps the last person in Poland to learn that the countrys President was killed last month in a plane crash was his invalid mother,and it fell to his twin brother,the former Prime Minister,to break the news.

As Poles celebrated their Mothers Day holiday on Wednesday,no son or daughter in the country would have wanted to be in the shoes of Jaroslaw Kaczynski,the presidential candidate and twin brother of the late president,Lech Kaczynski.

Their mother,Jadwiga Kaczynska,83,has been hospitalised since March after suffering heart and lung problems. In the aftermath of the crash,which shocked the country and turned this years presidential election on its head,doctors advised that the news be kept from her for the sake of her frail health.

Story continues below this ad

It was not until Tuesday,more than six weeks after the crash,with the mothers health modestly improved,that Kaczynski finally informed her that her son had been killed in the catastrophe that claimed the lives of 95 other people,including her daughter-in-law.

Elzbieta Jakubiak,a senior member of the Law and Justice Party set up by the Kaczynski brothers,confirmed in an interview on the news channel TVN24 that Kaczynski had told his mother the awful news. I sympathize with him immensely today, Jakubiak said.