WARSAW 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday evening criticized President Andrzej Duda after the latter offered condolences to Iran after the death of its President Ebrahim Raisi and other senior officials in a helicopter crash the previous day, and compared the event to a similar tragedy in Poland 14 years ago.

Talking with commercial television news TVN, Tusk said "the president had unnecessarily crossed a certain line," referring to Duda's condolences, in which he referred to the Smolensk disaster, a plane crash in April 2010 that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 other leading Polish public figures.

"Poles, who experienced the crash of the Polish plane in Smolensk, know the feeling of shock and emptiness that remains in people's hearts and in the country after the sudden loss of the political and social elite, after the sudden loss of loved ones and friends," the president wrote on X. "Therefore, with special understanding, we join the relatives of the victims and the Iranian nation in prayer and grief."

“Since the victim of this disaster is the president of another country, it is known that the president of Poland has certain diplomatic obligations, including expressing condolences,” Tusk said. “However, it seems to me that the president has unnecessarily crossed a certain line. I am particularly concerned about comparing Lech Kaczynski with the president of Iran."

Lech Kaczynski was the twin brother of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023.

Anna Maria Zukowska, chairwoman of the Left parliamentary club, a governing coalition partner of Tusk and candidate for the European Parliament, also reacted critically to President Duda's words. "Iran is the same source of evil as Russia, but in the Arab world. Stoning women and gays, murdering opponents, supporting Russia in its attack on Ukraine, financing terrorist networks. Raisi was called the Butcher of Tehran, accused of crimes against humanity," she wrote on X.

"Is Andrzej Duda aware that with his today's post he spat in the faces of thousands of families of the victims of the butcher from Tehran?" wrote attorney Roman Giertych, an MP of the Civic Platform, Tusk’s party.

Iran's Raisi, his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and others were on board the helicopter that went down on Sunday afternoon in northern Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

Vice President Mohammed Mokhber has assumed the powers of the presidency until new elections are held on June 28.