President Duda sets up Historical Policy team
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
17.11.2015 18:06
Polish President Andrzej Duda has invited a large group of historians, academics and journalists for the first in a series of meetings aimed at defining the strategy of Poland’s Historical Policy.
Polish President Andrzej Duda. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
In his remarks, the President recalled the words of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, one of the architects of Polish independence, who said that “a nation that loses its memory ceases to be a nation and becomes merely a collection of people temporarily inhabiting a given territory”.
In Duda’s view, this is a fitting description of the situation of the Polish nation.
It managed to regain independence in 1918 after 123 years of foreign rule because Poles “did not allow to be deprived of their national tradition, of their language, culture and faith”, the President said, adding that Poland needs a historical policy and a debate on how to shape civic and patriotic attitudes.
He invoked the view of the late President, Lech Kaczyński, who said that one must not equate patriotism with nationalism because their roots are entirely different.
“The foundation of patriotism is love, whereas that of nationalism or xenophobia is hatred”, President Duda said, expressing confidence that Europe is and will remain a continent of nation states. (mk/rg)