Thousands Rally in Warsaw to Remove Cross

Thousands rally in Warsaw to demand cross be moved

By VANESSA GERA (AP) – 8/10/10

WARSAW, Poland — Thousands of people held a midnight rally in Poland's capital to demand that a wooden cross erected in memory of the late President Lech Kaczynski be moved from in front of the presidential palace.

The cross was erected after Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash in Russia in April, and has become a site of mourning for a small group of elderly supporters of the late leader and his brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of a conservative pro-Catholic party who made an unsuccessful run for the presidency this summer.

It has also become a source of friction with their political rivals.

Those at the rally late Monday said they want the cross moved to a nearby church, arguing that it has no place in front of the presidential palace of a nation constitutionally defined as secular.

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