“The names of those who made our independence possible will go down in history. The dream of a free independent Poland was always of supreme importance to them,” said President Andrzej Duda on Saturday during the official celebrations of Poland’s Independence Day in Warsaw.
The President emphasized that Plac Piłsudskiego was a symbolic place where the Saxon Palace once stood and which was named after one of the fathers of Polish independence.
“Let their names go down in our history”
President Andrzej Duda reminded the audience that exactly one year before he had announced special official celebrations of the centenary of the day when Poland regained independence. He thanked the speakers of both chambers of the Polish Parliament, MPs and senators for adopting a law on the national celebrations of the anniversary.
“The recitals to the act and its first sentence refer to the most important people we owe our independence to. The independence reclaimed in 1918 after a prolonged struggle. The independence so many people fought for,” the President said.
“Their names should go down in our history and be remembered forever: Marshal Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Paderewski, Roman Dmowski, Wincenty Witos, Ignacy Daszyński and Wojciech Korfanty. It is thanks to them that independence returned. Were they united? In their thoughts about free Poland they were. The dream of a free and independent Poland, of our Poland, came before anything else,” he added.
The President said that the fathers of Polish independence had different views but they respected each other despite the ideological differences.
“Independence is not given once and for all”
The President also emphasized that “we need to remember about the price of independence, the price of freedom”.
“What we cannot forget is that independence is not given once and for all, that the most important thing in the political process is to keep strengthening it,” he remarked.
He also added that we needed to remember that faith in the Republic of Poland is always key in our everyday life, work and service.
“The most important thing is to be dedicated to your homeland, to the nation and to each and every one of our fellow citizens,” he said.
“This comes before all else, before our ideological divisions, before any disputes and quarrels, and each dispute, even the bitterest one, must lead to dialogue and to finding common ground for understanding,” President Duda underscored.
He said that it was the only way to build strong foundations for our state.
“Foundations which nobody will ever be able to break. Foundations which nobody will ever be able to remove. Foundations which will never be obliterated or wiped off the map of Poland.
“Long live free, independent and sovereign Poland”
“A few years after regaining independence, Polish soldiers and Polish citizens stood here in this square (named after Marshall Józef Piłsudski), assembled to take part in a great patriotic moment (…) when the body of a boy uncovered in a grave near Lvov was laid to rest at the Arcades of the Saxon Palace. It was the body of a defender of the Polish Republic who died fighting for Poland. He was an unknown soldier, a volunteer who held a Maciejówka cap in his hand as he died,” the President said. He added: “Back then, those who stood here knew very well what it meant to fight for a free Poland; those who stood here knew exactly what the price of independence and freedom was.”
The President recalled the words uttered by Prelate Antoni Szlagowski during that event, which, according to Andrzej Duda, “must be remembered and etched in the hearts of all Poles of all generations”. “So that free Poland can exist,” he explained. “(Szlagowski) said: Who are you before God, you common soldier, forgotten and nameless? You are the military genius of the nation – your name is courage. You are the limitless, unconquered might of national ideals – your name is sacrifice. You are the ever-victorious independence of the national spirit – your name is freedom,” President Duda quoted. “Long live free independent and sovereign Poland on the threshold of its one hundred years of independence. Hail the heroes of our free independent homeland,” the President emphasized.
Źródło: PAP/tłumaczenie intertext.com.pl