President Komorowski pays a visit in Lithuania

Meetings of the Polish President with Poles in Lithuania reassure and give them hope. Sometimes the hope is too big… Photo: Marian Paluszkiewicz

The President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, pays a visit in Lithuania on Thursday

He will take part in official celebrations of the Day of the National Revival of Lithuania in Vilnius. The President of Poland was invited for this event by the President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

Bronisław Komorowski will participate, among others, in a mass at the Vilnius Cathedral and in the celebrations on the Daukantas Square in front of the Presidential Palace. Similarly as during his last year visit in Lithuania, also this year, President Komorowski will meet with representatives of the Polish minority in Lithuania. This time, the President of the Republic of Poland will visit Soleczniki, where he will meet with local Poles at the Junior High School under the name of Jan Śniadecki.

— Above all, I would say that I feel really sorry for him – said the president of the University of Third Century in Soleczniki, Antoni Jankowski, asked during an interview with „Kurier” what he would like to tell the Polish President during tomorrow’s meeting. As explained by the outstanding solczanin, meritorious for Polishness in Lithuania, the President is placed in rigid frameworks of diplomacy of his office and he has to weigh every word.

— A politician of such rank is limited by certain rules of the diplomatic game and cannot always express what he really feels or would like to say – notices Antoni Jankowski. Therefore, he does not have a great hope that the visit of the President of Poland will change anything about the situation of the Polish minority in Lithuania.

— Despite this, such meetings are much needed for our compatriots, because they give comfort and instill hope. However, the most important thing is not to have too big hope, because we have been already disappointed several times – says Antoni Jankowski.

Solczans will be hosting the Polish President for slightly more than an hour. At 11am Bronisław Komorowski will depart for Vilnius. On his way, he will stop in Jaszuny, where at the local cemetery, he will place flowers on the grave of the outstanding Pole, Rector of the University of Vilnius, Jan Śniadecki.

Last year President Bronisław Komorowski met with the Polish community in Lithuania in Mejszagole. Photo: Marian Paluszkiewicz

In Vilnius, on the Daukantas Square, the President of Poland will take part in the ceremony of drawing of flags of three Baltic States, where he will give a short speech. Later, the Polish delegation will participate in a mass at the Vilnius Cathedral.

Before his departure to Warsaw, in Ponary near Vilnius, President Bronisław Komorowski will commemorate the memory of thousands of Vilnius Jews and Poles murdered during the Second World War by Nazis and their Lithuanian allies.

President Komorowski traditionally takes part in Lithuanian celebrations of the revival of independence on 16^th February. Also traditionally, he meets with Poles living in Lithuania. Last year, the President of Poland visited Mejszagole, where he met with the Polish minority and he visited the prelate of the holy memory of the Vilnius Region, priest Józef Obrembski.

President Bronisław Komorowski, whose family comes from Lithuania, always emphasises his sympathy for our country.

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