WARSAW — The mayor of Gdansk, Poland, a leading liberal critic of the populist, right-wing national government, died on Monday after being stabbed at a public charity concert Sunday night, the minister of health told reporters. Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, 53, the mayor of the northern port city since 1998, was known as a supporter of gay rights, and he had campaigned for the rights of immigrants in a country whose governing party has leaned heavily on anti-immigrant rhetoric. “It was impossible to win against everything that had happened to him,” Lukasz Szumowski, the health minister, said of the stabbing. “God rest his soul.” The attack stunned a nation that is increasingly divided politically. Tens of thousands of Poles joined rallies all over the country on Monday evening to condemn violence and hate speech.<doc-sep>“You could easily imagine a person who would have done the same having been much more motivated by the context in which it happened,” said Piotr Buras, the head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank. “That’s, for me, the bottom line, and that’s why it is for me a warning that if you tolerate this level of hatred in the public debate, much can happen.”<doc-sep>WARSAW, Poland — The mayor of a city in Poland died after he was stabbed in the heart on stage Sunday during the finale of a large charity event. Doctors operated for five hours on Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was attacked Sunday by an ex-convict who rushed onto the stage with a knife, shouting it was revenge against a political party Adamowicz had previously belonged to. Adamowicz — who has been the city's mayor for more than 20 years — grabbed his belly and collapsed in front of the audience at the highly popular annual fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. Polish blood donors came out in droves in a bid to save his life, but Poland's health minister said Adamowicz, 53, died of his wounds on Monday. The assailant shouted from the stage that he had been wrongly imprisoned under a previous government led by Civic Platform, a party to which the mayor formerly belonged. He said that his name was Stefan and that "I was jailed but innocent. ... Civic Platform tortured me. That's why Adamowicz just died." Police said the suspect, a 27-year-old Gdansk resident who was recently released from prison where he had served a term for bank robberies, has been detained and is awaiting questioning by prosecutors. Spokeswoman for the ruling Law and Justice party Beata Mazurek said the attack should be "absolutely condemned by all, regardless of what side of the political stage they are on." She insisted politicians in Poland need "greater responsibility for words, for deeds" because "there is no shortage of madmen on both sides" of the political spectrum. TV footage showed Adamowicz on stage Sunday with a sparkler in hand telling the audience that it had been a "wonderful day" of the charity collecting money across Poland and abroad for cash-strapped hospitals. Then the attacker came toward him. Gdansk's Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, second right, speaks during the 27th Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity in Gdansk, Poland, on Jan. 13, 2019. Bartosz Banka / Agencja Gazeta via Reuters European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who co-founded Civic Platform and is from Gdansk, wrote on Twitter: "Let's all pray for Mayor Adamowicz. Pawel, we are with you." Adamowicz, had been mayor of Gdansk, a Baltic port city, since 1998. He was part of the democratic opposition born in that city under the leadership of Lech Walesa during the 1980s. After leaving Civic Platform, he was re-elected to a sixth term as an independent candidate in the fall. A man is held on the ground by security personnel after he attacked the mayor of Gdansk, Poland, on Sunday during a charity event. Piotr Hukalo / AFP - Getty Images As mayor, he has been a progressive voice, supporting LGBT rights and tolerance for minorities. He marched in last year's gay pride parade, a rare action for a mayor in Poland. He also showed solidarity with the Jewish community when the city's synagogue had its windows broken last year, strongly denouncing the vandalism. The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity raises money for state-of-the-art medical equipment for Poland's cash-strapped health care system, mostly for children but also for the elderly.<doc-sep>
WARSAW—The popular mayor of a major Polish city died on Monday after being stabbed during a public address, sparking an uproar in a country torn by political tensions between the conservative government and the opposition. Pawel Adamowicz, 53 years old, a prominent politician close to the opposition who was mayor of the Baltic port city of Gdansk, was speaking on stage during a televised charity event attended by hundreds of people on Sunday night when he was assaulted. The attacker, a 27-year-old with a criminal record, stabbed Mr. Adamowicz with a large knife and then grabbed the microphone to shout slogans against the opposition political party. Mr. Adamowicz underwent an emergency surgery but died on Monday afternoon, authorities said. The suspect was immediately arrested and was in custody. The attempts by Poland’s nationalist conservative Law and Justice party to exert more political control over independent government institutions—especially the country’s Supreme Court—has deeply divided society. The opposition Civic Platform, a centrist party of which Mr. Adamowicz was formerly a member, has accused Law and Justice of plunging this country into authoritarian rule. Law and Justice accuses the opposition of looking down on ordinary Poles and cozying up to European elites. Gdansk, a major European trade and cultural hub that is a Civic Platform stronghold, is home to the democracy icon Lech Walesa and Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who is now president of the European Union Council, an executive body. It also served as a base for the Solidarity union that precipitated the fall of communism in the 1980s.