Minister: Polish PM's Auschwitz speech taken out of context
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
16.06.2017 10:39
The Polish prime minister's recent speech at Auschwitz, which was criticised as overtly political, has been taken out of context by the opposition, said Culture Minister Piotr Gliński.
Photo: Flickr.com/Fabrizio Sciami/CC BY-SA 2.0
In a recent speech marking 77 years since the first deportation of Polish prisoners to the Auschwitz German Nazi death camp, Szydło said: “In today's troubled times, Auschwitz is a great lesson that everything must be done to defend the safety and the lives of citizens.”
The comments were largely interpreted as relating to the Polish government's stance against accepting migrants.
Gliński said that Szydło's statement at the camp spoke about the responsibility for the community.
“It never crossed my mind that the statement would be interpreted in the way it was presented by the opposition,” he added.
“You have to have a lot of ill will to come up with such a cynical way of doing politics to take these words out of the context and interpret them,” Gliński said.
International news media including the BBC and the Associated Press commented that Szydło's comments were in relation to the policy of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland not to accept refugees, citing security concerns. (rg)