Krystian Kamiński: What about Lithuania?

Last Saturday I wrote that Prime Minister Donald Tusk and abroad Minister Radosław Sikorski decided to leave with their first abroad visits to Kiev.

Marshal Hołownia went on 5-6 February with his first visit elsewhere, but not entirely, as well as as as part of the Giedroytian paradigm – to Lithuania. The marshal was taken seriously in our neighbour's country. Formally, the second authoritative of the Republic of Poland was taken by the president Gitanasa NausedaPrime Minister Šimonite ingrida and his counterpart, president of Seimasu VČmilyte-Nilsen. I don't think it's a good move. In the language of diplomacy, going to another country is simply a show of respect, a motion of goodwill, but besides a request for something. It is usually read that this host is in position of advantage.

I would hold off on specified a visit and wait for any movement of the Lithuanian side facing our interests, especially erstwhile we have invested more in this relation than our partners (in a literal sense it is the investment of Orlen in Mojejki, the energy bridge connecting Lithuania to the European Union system, but besides our aircraft in Baltic Air Police, the Polish Military quota as part of the extended presence defending the Lithuanian flank in neighboring Latvia, the faster advancement of Via Baltica on our side).

Meanwhile, the closing coalition of the Union of Homeland-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, the Liberal Movement and the Freedom organization did not seem to have met our interests. On the contrary, on the European Union phase Lithuania criticized Poland and joined the force on our country to block the influx of Ukrainian grain or block the dumped competition from Ukrainian transport companies. And it wasn't always peer-to-partner criticism. It is adequate to mention that in December last year the ambassadors of 3 Baltic countries in Warsaw (including Lithuania) went to the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure to officially express the protest there – demarche... against the protest of Polish transports at the border of Ukraine.

This behaviour betrays the deficiency of respect for Poland, its global position and the interests of its inhabitants. Meanwhile, Marshal Holovnia went to Lithuania with his heart on his hand, making a good face for a bad game, or, worse, in his diplomatic ignorance being actually in a good temper and hope for the better. He proposed to further strengthen Polish-Lithuanian interparliamentary cooperation at the level of individual committees. specified proposals are an expression of appreciation and of the utmost assurance in the future effects of cooperation.

I don't know why your marshal's attitude is such, since the results of our cooperation so far do not satisfy much of our interests. The holovnia besides called for the beginning of the interparliamentary plane of the Lublin Triangle, connecting Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. And again, what does the marshal want to reward our partners for? Poland is now in a stronger position towards Lithuania and Ukraine. Why add more and more importance to the multilateral format, in which, as can be expected from the past behaviour of the Lithuanians in the face of the Polish-Ukrainian conflicts, they will be on the side of Kiev.

I think we should wait for signals of a greater knowing of our needs in Vilnius. The conditions are put before concessions for partners, not after them, which the subsequent governments of the 3rd Republic do not understand. The closing cabinet of Šimonyte and its facilities (parliamentary elections will take place in Lithuania at the end of this year) did not do much about organization discrimination against the Polish number in Lithuania, the majority of the population in the surrounding Vilnius historical area of Vilnius. In 2022, only the legalization of the letter “W” and the two-signs was achieved by local Poles on the subject of the recording of names. The only major decision is to reconstruct the Polish language as an object which students of schools with the Polish language of teaching will be able to pass on the state elder exam. Marshal Hołownia declared that at all meetings with representatives of the Lithuanian authorities he would mention the rights of the community of Vilnius Poles. "I will fight as much as I can to guarantee that all the rights of the Polish number in Lithuania are respected – the right to language, the right to education, the right to the fair delimitation of electoral districts, the right to representation which is connected with this and is crucial to democracy, due to the fact that this is the absolute foundation on which to build further," said the marshal.

This is advancement in relation to president Duda's visit to Vilnius in 2018, erstwhile he said about the demands of local Poles "some expectations are a bit excessive". Holownia's message besides suggests that he understood the circumstantial issues in which Poles are discriminated against in Lithuania. The Marshal said that Lithuanian politicians had made declarations about the passing of the bill on national minorities. However, this is purely rhetorical progress. For 34 years, the Polish-Lithuanian declarations of willingness to guarantee compliance with the rights of national minorities by Lithuanian politicians fell repeatedly. The Lithuanian authorities undertook to implement them legally and formally in the treaty – as I wrote in November. However, there has been no improvement, and in any key areas it is even possible to see the limitation of these rights, specified as education. Let us not fetishize any Lithuanian number bill. erstwhile the erstwhile law was in force in Lithuania until 2010, although in its records it was possible to usage bilingual signs for the names of localities and streets, the Constitutional Court of Lithuania in practice made these provisions dead as contrary to the provisions of the language law, which was given priority.

In order to confirm the implementation of the language rights of the Poles of Vilnius, the Act on National Minorities may not suffice, but it may be essential to amend the Lithuanian government more widely or to interpret it – both are political welds. While in Vilnius, Marshal Holovnia met with representatives of the communities of our countrymen. erstwhile Members of the Lithuanian Sejm for the Polish Electoral Action in Lithuania-Union of Christian Families Rita Tamašuniene and Czesław Olszewski, Independent MP Beata Pietkiewicz, Minister of Justice for the Freedom organization Ewelina Dobrowolska, the merr of Vilnius region for the Lithuanian Social Democratic organization Robert Duchniewicz. Among them, however, there was no president of the AWPL-ZCHR Waldemar Tomaszewski.

The holovnia was not allowed to be active in the hunt by many environments in Poland and Lithuania, saying that its assessment "is a substance which should be arranged in a clear and precise manner by the Polish community in Lithuania. I have heard a lot about him and good, and bad about the various actions that were taken.” But he besides related the function of Tomaszewski as a typical leader of the community, the leader of the party, who has been drawing his legitimacy for years to represent Poles in Vilnius from their electoral support, which can be read from the results of the Tomaszewski organization in the communities of the dense residence of Poles. I think that Mr Tomaszewski deserves more assurance in Poland, since the Poles themselves in Lithuania trust him most. However, this is progress, due to the fact that the declaration of designation of the subjectivity of this community contrasts, for example, with the actions of the erstwhile Polish Ambassador to Lithuania nominated by the Law and Justice Government Ursula Doroszewska, who in 2018 tried to manually control the elections of the president of the Union of Poles in Lithuania.

On the second day of his visit, Marshal Holovnia met with his students at Vilnius University. The gathering was held in English. The question is, why did he not specifically include Polish students? specified appreciation of students in this direction would be very appropriate. It is simply a staff forge for schools with Polish language of teaching in Lithuania, but the rank of Polish studies in Vilnius higher education is being reduced, given how its organization empowerment has weakened since the abolition of the independency of Vilnius Pedagogical University. Why didn't Marshal Hołownia find time to meet with students from Vilnius branch of the University of Białystok, the biggest success of the 3rd Poland policy supporting the improvement of the Polish community in Lithuania? Summing up the visit of Marshal Holownia in Lithuania can be said: he reached out his hand, received beautiful words. I wonder if the fresh government will yet decide to hold Lithuania's elite to its word and draw applicable consequences. Our people in Vilnius deserve it.

Krystian Kamiński

photo of the fb profile of the Polish Embassy in Vilnius

The author is simply a associate of the Main Board of the Confederation, he was a associate of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland for the 9th term