PRESS RELEASE

National minorities in Poland concerned about escalation of radicalism – political backing from the president and prime-minister

The national minorities in Poland and leading state representatives are concerned about the danger of escalation in radicalism in Poland. In particular the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) opposition party wants to increase its popularity based on anti-German sentiments. Until recently the Germans in Poland were almost the only part of society that warned against increasing intolerance against national minorities in Poland. How serious the situation has become, is clear now that leading state representatives have expressed their opinion on this issue. “There is a real danger for national radicalism in Poland. It is a matter of serious concern that no one acted to thwart this phenomenon at an early stage. This is very dangerous”, the Polish head of state Bronisław Komorowski said after the celebrations on the occasion of the Polish Independence Day (11 November 2012), which was marked by violent clashes between rightwing extremists and the police in Warsaw. These words were almost prophetic; already one week later, in circles around the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) opposition party, the idea was born to organise a march through the town of Opole/Oppeln (the capital of the region with the highest number of Germans in Poland), under the motto: “This is Poland”. At the meeting of the Opole representatives of PiS with Marek Kuchciński, the vice-marshal of the Polish Sejm, the German minority was called a “party of power” and their legally established rights such as the exemption from the 5% threshold of the total number of votes in the elections for the parliament were called “a scandal”. The party also criticised the fact that a representative from the minority had put up a bilingual street sign on his private property. According to PiS these are all “signs of disloyalty” to the Polish state. In the public however the message could be heard that “the Germans in Poland are no German minority but they are intellectually inferior”. Although there were two members of the Polish Sejm (national Parliament) at the march, none of them objected against these words. Already for many years PiS tries to strengthen its political position by instigating anti-German emotions, it criticises almost any initiative by the Germans in Poland on local level in the Sejmik (regional parliament) and other initiatives as well. Lately a so-called “white book of the disloyalty of the German minority” was compiled, with long-solved and often far-fetched examples of alleged incidents of disloyalty of the Germans to the Polish state. The idea of a “patriotic” march however has never been taken up before. The German minority has good reason to be worried, because Sławomir Kłosowski, the leader of the PiS party in Opole/Oppeln, announced that he would invite rightwing extremist associations such as the “National Radical Camp” (ONR). Kłosowski is not afraid for violence to occur. According to him the members of ONR are “good patriots”, who will remain quiet. Is it possible to share the optimistic view of the representative, even if it was exactly this organisation that participated in the riots with the police in Warsaw on 11 November 2012? As recently as in October last year unknown (and still not apprehended) persons painted a swastika and the symbol of “fighting Poland” on the building of the main organisation of

 

 

the German minority in Opole/Oppeln. Afterwards also a knuckleduster was found on the crime scene. During an organised march of many rightwing extremist organisations much worse may happen. The Germans in Poland are encouraged by the words of the Polish prime-minister Donald Tusk. Tusk assured that “there will be no hunt for minorities” as long as his party is in power. Another good sign was the recent press conference in the Polish Sejm, where members of several parties strongly disapproved of the actions of PiS. Also the minister for the administration and digitalisation Michał Boni, responsible for the minorities in Poland, set a sign by convening an extraordinary meeting of the joint commission of the govermnent and the national and ethnic minorities. Together the minorities and the government discussed the escalating problem of hate-speech against minorities in the internet and in society. This was an opportunity for the minister to hear that not only the Germans are affected by e.g. regularly vandalised bilingual place-name signs. Almost all the national minorities experience intolerance. The Belarussian minority even informed the minister about incidents of physical violence. To overcome such incidents a government programme for combating intolerance and promoting the acceptance of minories should be introduced, as the German minority has been proposing for a long time already. Concrete projects within such a programme should be proposed in January-February, according to minister Boni. The PiS party however continues with its criticism towards the German minority. Insults such as “the Germans are a gang of clever Dicks”, “the German minority is a parasite” and “the German minority fleeces the Polish state like a sheep” are not infrequent in the Polish media. The Germans are compared with Basque ETA-terrorists by the PiS-representatives and are regarded by them as a danger that can make Poland into “a second Kosovo”. For the Germans in Poland these are mainly attempts to divide a peaceful and harmonious society. For the German minority, the examples of disloyalty that PiS raises are in most cases rehashed old stories. But the situation that a march is being organised with the participation of rightwing extremist organisations is reason for concern. The German minority hopes that the Polish authorities will not underestimate this danger.

Łukasz Biły, Federation of German social-cultural societies in Poland (Verband der deutschen sozial-kulturellen Gesellschaften in Polen)