Polish presidential candidate clashes with Ukrainian mayor over monument to “genocidal” Bandera

One of the leading candidates in Poland’s upcoming presidential elections has clashed with a Ukrainian mayor after visiting his city and criticising the presence of a monument commemorating Stepan Bandera, a figure widely revered in Ukraine but regarded as a war criminal and Nazi collaborator in Poland.

This week, Sławomir Mentzen – the presidential candidate for the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party – visited Lviv in western Ukraine to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

On Tuesday, he posted a video of himself and party colleague Anna Bryłka standing in front of a monument to Bandera.

Mentzen, who is currently running third in the polls with support of around 16%, called Bandera a “terrorist” whose “people murdered 100,000 Poles”. Bryłka added that “it is like building a monument to Hitler in Germany”.

Bandera’s followers were responsible for the Volhynia massacres of 1943-45, during which around 100,000 ethnic Polish civilians – mostly women and children – were murdered. The episode continues to be a major source of tension between Poland and Ukraine.

In Poland, the Volhynia massacres are widely regarded as a genocide, and have been recognised as such by parliament, but Ukraine rejects that description.

“Ukraine must as quickly as possible end the cult of Stepan Bandera,” declared Mentzen on Tuesday.

In December, another Polish right-wing opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), submitted a proposed law that would ban glorification of Bandera. It would place “Banderism” alongside Nazism, fascism and communism, propagation of which is already punishable by up to three years in prison.

Mentzen’s remarks prompted an angry response from Andriy Sadovyi, Lviv’s mayor, who wrote on social media that Mentzen is a “pro-Russian politician with a Polish passport”.

Confederation has often been accused by opponents of having pro-Russian tendencies, like many other far-right parties in Europe.

It denies that, and does not take openly sympathetic positions towards Russia. However, it has often been critical of Ukraine and of the help Poland has given to Ukraine and to Ukrainian refugees during the war.

In his post, Sadovyi added that “Mentzen should show courage…[and] go to the front and share his thoughts, in particular with Polish volunteers”. He added that the Ukrainian authorities “need to check whether he is even allowed to enter Ukraine”.

That in turn led to a response from Menzten, in which he described Lviv – which before World War Two was part of Poland – as a “culturally Polish city”. He said that Sadovyi “should be ashamed that in such a magnificent city you allow the cult of genocidaires, criminals and murderers of my compatriots”.

“You should be banned from entering Poland,” added Mentzen. “Believe me, if I win [the presidential elections], I will take care of this urgently.”

This week’s incident is not the first time a Ukrainian politician has become caught up in Poland’s election campaign.

Last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky himself criticised Karol Nawrocki, the candidate supported by PiS, for saying that he “does not envision Ukraine in the EU or NATO” until it resolves issues relating to the Volhynia massacres.

Last year, a deputy prime minister in the Polish government also said that Poland would not allow Ukraine to join the European Union until the two countries “resolve” the controversial issue of the Volynia massacres.

However, in January this year, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a “breakthrough” on the issue, saying that Ukraine would permit the exhumation of victims of the massacre buried in mass graves on Ukrainian territory. Earlier this month, the Polish government confirmed that the first exhumations would go ahead this spring.

The first round of Poland’s presidential elections will take place on 18 May. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, a second-round run-off between the top two will take place two weeks later.

The current frontrunner is Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO), who is averaging around 32% in the polls. He is followed by Nawrocki on 23%, Mentzen on 16% and Szymon Hołownia of the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) on 6%.

Main image credit: Юрій Гвоздович/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 3.0)