Merkel at Wawel CastleUPDATE 4 -Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) is among a host of international leaders who are in Krakow, southern Poland today to celebrate 20 years of freedom in Poland.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk is accompanied by prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine and Hungary, and also German Chancellor Angela Merkel are meeting at the Wawel Castle in Kraków.
They are also joined by Solidarity icon and former Polish president Lech Walesa, former Czech president Vaclav Havel, and also former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski. Poland’s last president of the government-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski is also in attendance.
President Lech Kaczynski is not present in Krakow, as he is taking part in the celebratory events in Gdansk, explaining he doesn’t have the “skill of bi-location.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk along with Krakow Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz greeted the invited guests in front of the Wawel Cathedral this morning.
The main part of the event takes place in the arcade courtyard at the castle and is led by PM Donald Tusk. Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel and other invited leaders are also planned to make an appearance.
The gathered guests will present a Poslanie do Mlodej Europy – a special message to young people in Poland on the anniversary of the abolishment of communism. The message will be heard by secondary school students in Krakow.
After the celebration, Tusk, Walesa and Havel will fly to Gdańsk, to continue the anniversary celebrations.
Thankful for freedom, sovereignty
“Today, along with the representatives of European nations, we are thankful for the gift of freedom, and the sovereignty of our countries,” said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz told the congregation at Wawel Cathedral.
“We are thankful for those who brought their input into the victory for truth and good and in saving the dignity of our nations,” said Cardinal Dziwisz. “We are thankful for the shipyard workers in Gdansk and Szczecin, steel workers from Nowa Huta, and also many others. Thank you for Solidarity,” he added
Included in the list of the fathers who united Europe, he Pope John Paul II, who was “engaged in a spiritual manner in renovating the continent, in the rise of Solidarity and the abolishment of the Berlin Wall.”
“Without a doubt, he had a historic influence in the unity of our continent. He proposed a vision of Europe and the world without a war between classes, he rejected Marxists rhetoric, he demanded the dignity of the working people, and relentlessly propagated the right of the nations to freedom and sovereignty.”
Thank you
“We, contemporary Poles owe the words “thank you”, to those who are no longer with us, and whose presence in the past, whose lives, words and actions have become the fundamentals of freedom and solidarity in Poland and in the whole of Europe.” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“Hundreds of years ago, here in the Wawel cathedral, homage was paid to Polish Kings. Today on the anniversary of the first free elections in Europe - after years of being harassed by communism - today here in Wawel, leaders of European nations have come to pay homage to the great ideals of freedom, and show solidarity with the famous heroes and the unknown ones, who for freedom, and solidarity, sacrificed their entire lives,” said the prime minister.
During the Thursday celebrations, Prime Minister Tusk thanked Pope John Paul II, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, Lech Walesa and Lech Kaczyński for Poland’s freedom.
The prime minister thanked former president Lech Walesa for being a “leader of a huge movement, who while being a modest worker had the ability to capture the hearts of other workers.” Within a few weeks, he had the ability to capture, by his example, ten million Poles, who organized themselves into the most beautiful movement in modern Europe history, creating a victory of peace,” Tusk said
Let’s be cheerful
Finally, of the Polish politicians gathered at the cathedral, it was former leader of the Solidarity trade union, Lech Walesa to address the congregation.
“Let’s be happy that we are celebrating the end of divisions,” appealed Lech Walesa. The former president highlighted that the democratic changes were possible because they were based on values.
He underlined that during a time when there was doubt about the possibility of creating major changes in 1989, “we reached for our values, and got a gift in the form of the Holy Father.”
“Setting the values in motion is what allowed us to be victorious,” he said.
“Let’s be cheerful today, that it was us, it was our generation that achieved it, but also let’s remember that such gifts that were received by our generation require for Europe and the world to keep getting better. This is what I wish to all of you,” concluded Lech Walesa.
(mnk/pg)
Last updated 13.40 CET