Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013 – what do you have for us?

Although the world has not ended, for some Lithuanians Polish electoral success may be perceived as a doomsday… There is no end to the economical crisis although some people claim that the worst is ahead of us, whereas others believe that the worst is looming on the horizon. Lithuania has a new government of which many people have high hopes, which is indicated by the growing popularity of the Prime Minister. There was a decline in Mrs President’s popularity after she gave a political farce alien yet at that time to the Lithuanian nation. The Sejm decided to follow her and maybe we will see how the deputy prime minister and one of the most popular political leaders, who has been openly mocking the Lithuanian establishment for years, is to be sent to prison in the following year. What will happen in 2013?

For the Poles living in Lithuania it is going to be a year full of high hopes, which are connected especially with the normalisation of life. Mainly with political life, because for the first time Poles have their representatives on every level of the administration: from a starost and a councillor to a minister and a vice-marshal. Previously, there was always Someone Bad on some level of the administration, who did not allow to attain the ambitions or denied their due rights to Poles. Now, however, Poles are no longer in opposition but in the government coalition, so they have a real influence on the legislative decisions as well as on the realizations of plans on the executive level. Now they have an opportunity to catch up after the two previous decades.

But what do the representatives of Polish community think about this? In what moods do they bid farewell to the undoubtedly historic year 2012? What do they expect from the year 2013?

Two other normalizations are connected with those politicians. First of all, the normalization of the economy; and here Polish citizens are no different from Lithuanians who would also like to live in a civilised European country, which would be open and attractive, modern and prospective. That is why they want to normalize the social life, to normalize the Polish-Lithuania relations, both between Vilnius and Warsaw (which have an enormous influence on public feeling) and on the interpersonal level. So that the Poles would not be afraid and ashamed of speaking Polish in the streets, while using public transport, at work, at the office. So that a Pole would not be associated only with “local” villager who uses a Russian-folk jargon, but he would be associated with competent, honest, tolerant person and a wise work dedicated to the common good of Lithuania.

Katarzyna Niemyćko made an important breakthrough in this field as she showed how much one can do during whole year working very hard. She was not successful in the preliminary to the Eurovision Song Contest, however, she and her team almost won the title of the Best Choir of the nation in the “Clash of the Choirs” that spring. She did not give up and in the autumn she took part in a new project, in which she undoubtedly proved to Lithuania that the POLE CAN!

We wish this to all Polish people in 2013 – to those living in Lithuania, Poland and all around the world – from the bottom of our hearts and directly from Vilnius!

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/tresc/zegnaj-nam-roku-2012-jaki-bedziesz-2013

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