Hołownia: on June 9 we must make the same choice as 35 years ago

A ceremony commemorating the 35th anniversary of the 1989 election was held on Tuesday at the Solidarity Square in Gdańsk.

Among the guests were participants of those historical events, including former president and former leader of the Solidarity trade union Lech Wałęsa, as well as representatives of state authorities, parliament, and local government.

The ceremony was part of the Celebration of Freedom and Civil Rights, which has been held in Gdańsk since June 1.

Addressing the crowd, parliament speaker Szymon Hołownia said that "today we are at a moment when reality poses very difficult questions".

"We know well that even if we take the freedom we have had for 35 years, add communism to it - counting it as times of freedom - add to it the interwar period, it is still a shorter time of freedom than the partitions lasted (the three Partitions of Poland which took place in 1772, 1793, and 1795 - Poland regained independence and statehood 123 years later in 1918)," he said.

"We still have to learn this freedom, we constantly test it, we constantly check ourselves in these conditions of freedom as a nation," he added.

Hołownia also spoke about the June 9 elections to the European Parliament.

"You know well how much is also at stake for us in these elections, how many candidates we have around us who openly say that Poland should withdraw from the European Union," he said.

"Today we have to mobilize ourselves and on June 9 make the same choice as we did 35 years ago once more. Repeat this choice. A choice for freedom, a choice for self-determination, a choice for a wise, free, united, better, hospitable, open to others Poland.

"That's the stake of these elections," Hołownia stressed.

The Mayor of Gdańsk, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, said Poles should ask themselves how many challenges lie ahead for them in Poland, Europe, and the world. She stressed that "democracy and freedom are not given once and for all".

"We have here today members of the Ukrainian nation, who bravely face Russian aggression. We have representatives of the Belarusian people. But let's also remember the Russian opposition, who are sitting in prisons because they dare to talk about human rights, democracy, freedom.

"That's why today let's be proud of what we have achieved together," said Mayor Dulkiewicz.

The elections of June 4, 1989, were the result of an agreement reached during the Round Table talks between the communist authorities, some members of the opposition, and the Catholic Church.

The turnout in the first round (June 4) was high - 62 percent. The result was a success for Solidarity - 60 percent voted for candidates put forward by the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Out of 161 parliamentary seats then designated for the opposition, Solidarity won 160 in the first round, as well as 92 out of 100 seats in the Senate.

In the second round, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee won the last vacant parliamentary seat. In the Senate elections, Solidarity won a total of 99 out of 100 seats.