Death of a President

Poland, at the beginning of the 1920s. In a country that has recently regained independence after almost a century and a half of partitions, there is a growing dispute between democratic and nationalist-fascist forces over the vision of the country’s future. On 9 December 1922, the Sejm and Senate elect Gabriel Narutowicz, a left-wing candidate imbued with democratic ideals, as the first president of the Republic. His candidacy, and even more so his election, ignites a political conflict that moves to the streets and, after a week from the election of the president, ends in tragedy at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. (Camerimage)