“No one will forbid us from describing honestly and telling the truth about who Lech Wałęsa was. For that I thank Sławomir Cenckiewicz,” said President Karol Nawrocki on Sunday at the BHP Hall of the Gdańsk Shipyard.
In the historic BHP Hall of the Gdańsk Shipyard, a ceremonial meeting of the Board of the Gdańsk Region of NSZZ “S”(Solidarity) began on Sunday with the participation of, among others, President Karol Nawrocki. The event is a traditional part of the celebrations organized by the union to commemorate the anniversary of the August Agreements in Gdańsk.
“Honorable heroes of our freedom. Also of my freedom – the freedom of a man born in the 1980s. I can live in a free Poland thanks to you, and I want to thank you, heroes of Solidarity,” President Nawrocki first addressed the audience.
As he said, “it is hard not to feel emotions in the BHP Hall of the Gdańsk Shipyard, which, although constructed in the 19th century, today in our shared national memory is defined solely through the prism of what was achieved in August 1980.”
“This is the best proof that something exceptional happened in Poland at that time. Something that generations of Poles had been waiting for,” he added.
He recalled his previous role as president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN): “I stand here before you also with personal emotion. For the last four years I had the great honor and duty, on behalf of President Andrzej Duda who is here with us, to award the Crosses of Freedom and Solidarity to our heroes. I awarded them here, in the BHP Hall, and throughout Poland. I awarded them to those who slipped away from the vision of the Polish state for many decades after 1989. To those who acted as they should in 1980, and whom the Polish state forgot for many years. Who never heard a ‘thank you’ from Poland.”
“Today, Poland thanks the millions who stood on the right side in the revolution of August 1980. We will continue to remember them,” he repeated.
As he pointed out, “it is impossible to tell the history of great Solidarity without great names. Today we are joined by Andrzej and Joanna Gwiazda, Krzysztof Wyszkowski.”
“We also remember the late Anna Walentynowicz, the mother of Solidarność. It was for her that the strike began. It was she who made the strike become one of solidarity,” emphasized Nawrocki.
He also mentioned the former president:
“In this story there is also the chairman of Solidarity, Lech Wałęsa, whom we cannot forget, because that would mean succumbing to political amnesia.”
- “No one will forbid us from describing honestly and telling the truth about who Lech Wałęsa was. For that I thank Sławomir Cenckiewicz,” said Nawrocki, which was met with loud applause.
“We want, for the common good, to stand in the truth about Solidarity. To draw from it, because it is not only tradition and history, but also an obligation,” he declared.