Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski, denounced the "Godless" tone of the European constitution yesterday, calling it shameful to highlight the pet ideologies of the Left but omit any mention of Europe's Christian heritage in the opening words.
"I am an atheist and everybody knows it, but there are no excuses for making references to ancient Greece and Rome, and the Enlightenment, without making references to the Christian values which are so important to the development of Europe," he said.
Speaking to The Telegraph at the end of a 45-day campaign to drum up support for his country's referendum this weekend on Poland's membership of the European Union, he said: "The most significant feature of every city and town in Europe is either a cathedral or a church."
Mr Kwasniewski was campaigning in Gniezno, the birthplace of Polish Catholicism in 966 and the medieval capital of Poland's first princes and kings. He predicted that Poles would vote by 80 per cent to join the EU, despite deep misgivings about loss of cultural identity.
"All our history makes us part of Europe. There is nowhere else for us to go," he said. "Fears that the EU will cause Poland to lose its identity are baseless."
Polish officials are still keeping their fingers crossed, fearing an upset protest vote against Brussels by Catholics and millions of yeoman farmers who will have to compete with heavily subsidised Western farmers on equal terms from day one, while waiting a decade for their full subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy.
Mr Kwasniewski, who sent troops to fight Saddam Hussein and is now putting together a Polish-led sector in Iraq, said his country looked to Nato for its long-term security and would join Britain in resisting French-led attempts to turn the Union into an anti-American fortress.