President Bronisław Komorowski reflects upon past and future of the country in an exclusive interview with Poland Today’s Andrew Kureth and Richard Stephens.
What do you consider to have been Poland’s greatest success over the past 25 years?
The entire 25-year period of freedom in Poland has been a historic success. This has been the best time in Poland’s history for several centuries. Poland is now rooted in the structures of the West, is a member of the European Union and NATO and its borders are secure. During the past 25 years Poland has been inexorably developing and catching up with the wealthiest countries in Europe. Poland’s success has many faces.
However, if I had to list areas in which the greatest changes have taken place then I would point to the growth in the Polish economy, the development of our independence and the transformation in peoples’ attitudes. During the past 25 years – even during the global financial crisis – Poland has been and remains a leader in economic growth. Communism stifled not only peoples’ enterprise but also the energy of society and the opportunity for self determination. Political freedom brought with it changes in those areas. We could once again feel that we owned our own homeland. The rebirth of self government allowed Poles to accept responsibility for their immediate surroundings.
We have learned to manage freedom and to enhance it with active citizenship. Poles have come to believe that a lot depends on them and that they should take matters into their own hands. We are now a different society – more open and more engaged. This is reflected by the development of NGOs, voluntary organisations and the use of new media and technology. This is particularly visible among the younger generation. Young Poles are dynamic, educated, speak foreign languages and do not differ from their peers in the West – and they are unreservedly engaged in building a common Europe.
In the early years of the transformation, did you ever worry that the changes could go in the wrong direction and that Poland might not seize its chance?
Given the enormous challenges facing Poland, concern about the future and the success of the reforms was rather natural. However, I remember the mood of those days, the great hopes and, after June 4, the growing belief that perhaps now it would all work out.
The concerns remained but they were not paralysing. Instead they added reason to our actions. The Solidarity generation, which stood at the head of the transformation, was able to take responsibility for the essential changes while the people bore the burden of the reforms – which were often difficult for some groups of society. Today, 71% of Poles believe that it was worth changing the system.
What do you consider to be the greatest challenge facing Poland over the next 25 years? What goals should Poland set for itself?
The world has not stood still and it will require constant effort to remain among the leaders. Effort which will strengthen the competitiveness of the Polish economy and allow us to make the most of the social capital which was released by the Solidarity revolution.
We need a new reforming drive. One cannot rest on one’s laurels in business, because without momentum today’s business may founder. We are faced with the need to identify new driving forces for growth. It is time for our economic success to be based not just on cheap labour but on competitiveness and innovation.
Economies do not operate in a vacuum. The future of Poland will be dependent on the quality of our public institutions and the laws that are adopted. The level of political culture and the maturity of our democracy are also important. The institutions in a democratic country should be the place where freedom can be realised wisely. We should treat them not as a necessary evil, but as a tool for the organisation of a government that serves citizens and allows them to work for the common good. Such a government will attract and not deter Poles.
It will encourage them to take a more active role in the democratic process. Poland faces a serious challenge to its future when it comes to demographics.
Economic and social growth requires the creation of a ‘Good Climate for the Family’ in various areas of life, and my office has created a programme under that name. In it I encourage business people and local governments to create working conditions that will allow people to balance work and family.
What role does Poland have to play in bringing Europe closer together, at a time when anti-EU sentiment is running high in many members of the bloc?
Poles want a united Europe. The 89% support for membership of the European Union is not just the result of the benefits that membership of the EU has brought. It is a reflection of the conviction that we have found the right place for us. Polish support for European integration is not just a choice of well-being and growth but also the choice of the values of the specific union in which human rights and the ambitions of nations are protected, creating the strength and success of Europe.
Taught by our complicated history, we regard the EU as a project that provides a guarantee of peace and security. The dramatic events in Ukraine, which is fighting for its independence and the right to join the European Union, show that Poland made the right choice.
It is a bitter paradox that the voice of the Eurosceptics in the EU was becoming louder at the same time as people in the Maidan in Kiev were dying for the European ideal. That is food for thought. Euroscepticism provides a challenge to improve the European project, to bring it closer to the people in order to involve them more strongly in taking key decisions. It is important for Europe as a whole that these views do not begin to dominate or threaten the progress of integration.
During the 10 years of Poland’s membership of the European Union, we have clearly defined our role within an integrating Europe. We encourage it to be open to other countries, we support their accession, while also acting in favour of uniting the existing structures.
We take an active part in creating tools that give Europe prospects for the future. We have proved this ability to build cooperation in, for example, the Visegrad Group, the Weimar Triangle, and as the joint author of the Eastern Partnership. Recently, Poland again demonstrated that we can react constructively to a challenge by suggesting the creation of an energy union.
What role does Poland have to play in the global community as a whole? Can Poland be a positive role model for countries striving to achieve a democratic system for themselves? Can Poland offer practical assistance?
At the beginning of this interview we recalled the great changes that resulted from the victory of Poles seeking freedom under the banner of Solidarity.
Poland’s success has many faces, says President Bronisław Komorowski – but among the most prominent are its strong ties to the West, its unprecedented level of security and its economic development. He also cites a change in attitudes among Poles and growing participation in NGOs and civic organisations.
We believed that those ideals could change Europe and the world. And that is exactly what happened. The Polish transformation led to the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Yalta-based division of Europe.
The Solidarity message and the successful transformation are our ideas to export. After all, the history of struggles for freedom has not yet ended. There are still places in the world where freedom remains an unfulfilled dream. It was extremely moving when during the Arab Spring people in distant countries drew upon the symbols, demands and achievements of the Polish Solidarity movement.
The removal of autocratic government is just the beginning. Poland, with its experience of a successful transformation can, and wants to, provide support to all nations that wish to wisely manage and enshrine their freedom. We are already providing such assistance to our eastern neighbours by sharing our experience in building an effective free economy, democratic institutions, an independent media, independence, as well as how to fight pernicious phenomena such as corruption.
We would like Poland to occupy a stronger position in Europe and the world. We are also aware of the responsibilities that come with this. The Poles themselves have noticed the growing role our country plays in the international arena – some 70% believe that over the past 25 years the position of Poland and its security have improved, as have our relations with our neighbours. We want to make use of the international success of our country as a source of optimism which is so needed today by the whole of Europe and the peoples of the world.
Background Information
Steady hand
President Komorowski is known for holding steady under difficult circumstances. An active member of Poland’s opposition movement throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he needed his nerve when he was arrested or targeted for harassment.
He was forced to endure internment for a time while Poland was under martial law. But the moment his mettle may have been most tested was when he was thrust into the spotlight on April 10, 2010. On that day President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others died in a tragic plane crash outside Smolensk, Russia. As Speaker of the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, the constitution mandated that the mantle of acting president fall on his shoulders.
At the time, he had been running for president against the late Lech Kaczyński himself. Komorowski called for all Poles to put aside their political differences during a period of mourning. They did, and so did he. The aftermath of the Smolensk disaster remains one of the only periods in Poland’s democratic history that the country’s political scene was so united, if only fleetingly. He went on to win early presidential elections against the late president’s twin brother, Jarosław. Since that time he has remained one of Poland’s most trusted politicians. He is expected to run for a second term in 2015.
This year he is promoting June 4 – the anniversary of the country’s first partially democratic elections since World War II – as a ‘Day of Freedom’ during which the country will celebrate its successful transition to democracy.
Political achiever
Bronisław Komorowski was born on June 4, 1952 near Wrocław. He graduated from secondary school in Warsaw and went on to study history at the University of Warsaw. He is Poland’s fifth president since 1989, the year Poland began its transition to democracy and a market economy, and has served in the role since 2010. But Komorowski has a long history of being active in Polish political life, going back to 1968, when he took part in the March Protests against Poland’s communist authorities.
Komorowski became active in the opposition movement, and worked as a printer, journalist and publisher of the underground press. From the early 1980s until 1989, he taught history at a theological school in the village of Niepokalanów, just west of Warsaw. Komorowski got back into politics in 1991, when he ran successfully for parliament.
He served there until becoming president in 2010, working in the Commission for Poles Overseas, the Commission for National Defence, and the Commission for Foreign Affairs. During this time he also served in the governments of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki and Hanna Suchocka as Deputy Minister of National Defence. In 2000-2001 he was Minister of National Defence in the Jerzy Buzek government. Komorowski was elected as Speaker of the Sejm twice – in 2005 and 2007 – and in 2006 he was elected deputy leader of the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) party. He and his wife, Anna, have five grown-up children.
source: Poland-today.pl
