The Lithuanian media fan anti-Polish phobias

The anti-Polish hysteria triggered by the Lithuanian media owing to the arrival to Vilnius of the Polish football fans of “Lech Poznań”, who came to support their favourites playing against “Žalgiris”, is transforming into a social phobia, fuelled willingly by the media. The Polish-Lithuanian relations in the context of behaviour of the Polish supporters in Vilnius and their later insult, including posting up the anti-Lithuanian poster in Poznań during the return match of both teams, have hit the headlines of the Lithuanian newspapers for the last several weeks.

Since the very beginning of the week, the media have been recalling the incident of Poznań. The politicians addressed the application to the Polish Ambassador, in which they demanded clarification of the issue, in spite of the fact that the Director of Public Prosecutions Office in Poznań had already started proceedings against the culprits, and the representatives of the Polish authorities had repeatedly extended apologies for the aforementioned anti-Lithuanian poster at the stadium in Poznań.

While the incident of Poznań began to bore the audience to distraction, the media aroused another scandal, this time around the comment of Waldemar Tomaszewski, the member of the European Parliament and the leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania. On 14^th August, during the conference summoned in the Lithuanian Seimas, he was forced to explain to the journalists what he had commented himself and what had been added to his remarks by the media. Tomaszewski noticed that some of the media continue to misinterpret his words with a clear overzealousness, and neither agreed nor disagreed that it might be done on someone’s vivid command.

Nonetheless, a real storm blew up when the media revealed the behaviour of the Polish fans of “Polonia Vilnius” at the same stadium, at which “Lech” were playing against „Žalgiris” at the beginning of August. On Wednesday “Polonia” met in fierce contention with the first league team „Žalgiris-3″. Despite the fact that there were literally no ominous signs of a prospective sensation, it was eventually caused by the extra police forces, gathered to control the potential rioting mob, as well as one unfortunate incident, which resulted in a green firecracker landing on the turf of the pitch. “The Polish hooligans went crazy at the LFF stadium once again. Owing to the damage caused by the fans of “Polonia”, the UEFA European League Games cannot be held” – commented the most popular Lithuanian Internet portal DELFI, immediately informing its readers about the incident. The portal also noticed that the match was attended by an exceptional number of the fans of “Polonia”, not mentioning that there were merely 50 of them. Instead, DELFI described in details that “there were plenty of guys with clean-shaven heads from Poland – the fans of “Łomża”, “Polonia Warsaw”, and the fans of “Lida” from Belarus, who concern themselves as Poles, not Belarusians. In view of the journalist of DELFI, all of them arrived to support the Polish team, yet neither agreed nor disagreed that they also aimed at arousing the fight with the fans of „Žalgiris”.

“The extraordinary number of the police forces, which could never be observed otherwise, during any other first-league matches, deterred them from inflicting violence, yet was not capable of preventing them from throwing the firecrackers on the pitch” – summed up the Internet portal of the top Lithuanian daily „Lietuvos rytas”. It also remarked that the police detained several Polish hooligans, the culprits of the riots. However, the journalists were forced to reedit the text and delete the fragments concerning unfavourable statements about the supporters of “Polonia”, as they clearly collided with the video coverage, which displayed that the only one “spree” of the Poles was launching the firecrackers. Furthermore, the police detained only one offender (instead of several ones – as it was claimed primarily), who stood next to the police officers, and whom they handcuffed and put under arrest.

The anti-Polish hysteria seized the Lithuanian media to such an extent, that on 16^th August another “event”, which otherwise would probably remain unnoticed, was hyped up to the limits by the daily „Lietuvos rytas”. “The Poles polish the floor of the Seimas” – announced „Lietuvos rytas”, sharing this shocking news with its readers, who kept on expressing their opinions on the Internet forums, claiming it was a tremendous and outraging scandal. The workers speaking in Polish are regarded by them as the employees of the Polish Intelligence Agency, who allegedly bug the floor of the Lithuanian Parliament in order to keep the Lithuanian deputies under surveillance.

In fact, the issue is trivial. The tender to renovate the marble floor of the edifice of the Lithuanian Parliament was won by the Swedish company „Žybartuva”, which employs the Polish subcontractor – “Sirha” company. The Poles have well-qualified experts on this field at their disposal and have necessary equipment to take up such tasks. The daily also remarks that this is not the first time the Poles have undertaken the renovation of the Lithuanian Parliament, yet does not explain, why this information was not published earlier in its press coverage. “Aldone”, one of the users of the Internet forum, explains the situation in her own, sarcastic way: “What difference does it make, of which nationality the worker is…? Is the article written by the nationalists? The foreign press describes the company as a “foreign one” and does not even mention the nationality of the workers. Someone clearly attempts to set the Poles against the Lithuanians once again. (…) I guess that one day the floor in the Lithuanian Parliament will be covered with the inscriptions informing passers-by, which tiles were polished by the Poles, and which by the Lithuanians, and obviously only those polished by the latter will be entitled to be trod on”.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/08/16/litewskie-media-podsycaja-antypolskie-fobie/

Tłumaczenie by Joanna Mirek w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Joanna Mirek within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.