“Regardless of how we assess the Round Table, it is absolutely clear that the Presidential Palace is not the place where it should stand. We are handing it over to history. From 2027, it will be available for visitors to admire at the Museum of Polish History (MHP),” President Karol Nawrocki said today.
The President of the Republic of Poland addressed the public today from the Presidential Palace. During the briefing, employees could be seen in the background as they were “dismantling” the Round Table.
During his speech, the head of the Polish state pointed out that “thirty-six years ago, various individuals representing different interests sat at the Round Table that is now being removed from the Presidential Palace.”
“Some participants wanted, through the Round Table, to transfer communist political, party, or financial influence into a Poland that was undergoing transformation and was meant to become sovereign, independent, and democratic. Those sitting on one side sought to ensure that Poland after 1989 would be a hybrid – democratic on the surface, yet still rooted in elements of the communist system,” he continued.
And further: “Others came with good intentions, viewing the Round Table as a strategic point, a tactical moment on the path toward Poland holding genuinely free elections within a short time and becoming a sovereign and independent state cut off from the communist system. There were those who saw it precisely as such a strategic and tactical turning point.”
The Round Table disappears from the Presidential Palace
Later, President Nawrocki noted that “there were also individuals who, although repressed by the communist system before 1989 and themselves victims of it, nevertheless – as a result of these negotiations – developed a kind of Stockholm syndrome, forgiving all the crimes of the communist system and continuing to support, symbolically, politically, and within party structures, those who had murdered Poles. And we are speaking now in December, the month marking the introduction of martial law.”
“Regardless of how we assess the Round Table, it is certain that the Presidential Palace is not the place where it should continue to stand. The place where the Round Table belongs is a museum – we are talking about history, and we are handing the Round Table over to history,” he emphasized.
He also added what would happen to the object: “From 2027, visitors to the Museum of Polish History (MHP) will be able to admire the Round Table as a historical exhibit. Debates may still take place around it. However, in the most important building of the Republic of Poland, the Presidential Palace, the Round Table should not be a symbol that defines our future.”
“We can aspire to more.” Moreover, the head of the Polish state stated outright that in the ongoing century “young Poles – those born in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as my own generation – do not have to enter into any arrangements with former dictators, communists, or post-communists.”
“We do not want in 21st-century Poland, nor do we need, when thinking about our future, our economic success, our economic development, or the growth of our technologies, to listen to the voice not only of communist-era dictatorships and those who murdered, but we also must not infect future generations of Poles with the drabness of the communist system,” he pointed out.
He also emphasized that “today, a free, independent, sovereign, and ambitious Poland can aspire to far more than idealizing the Round Table. The Round Table must not be forgotten, as it remains an important element of historical debate, but it also must not be idealized by paying it tribute in the Presidential Palace.” He also referred to events from years ago, when “one theater and film actress in 1989 enthusiastically and proudly said on a television program that communism had ended in Poland that very day.” He stressed that “those words were spoken prematurely.”
As we know, communist heroes and communist elites after 1989, including officers of the Security Service (SB), played an important role. Paraphrasing the words of that actress from 1989, President Nawrocki said with pride – and expressed hope that it was not premature – “today, post-communism has finally come to an end in Poland. Long live free Poland!” the President concluded.