Songaila: The way to creating territorial autonomy has to be closed (Nationalists do not want Lithuanian language to be the matter of the Polish-Lithuanian dispute)

On the day of the visit of the minister of foreign affairs Linas Linkevičius in Warsaw Lithuanian nationalists submitted a letter to the Parliament, the president and the government of Lithuania in which they demand the Lithuanian language not to be the matter of dispute between Vilnius and Warsaw. A special conference was organized in the Parliament.

“Putting into effect the government programme we demand not to violate the Constitution and the Act on the state language. We do not want the names of places  of original Lithuania lands to be twisted. They have to be still written only in the state language. The territorial unity of Lithuania has to be intact, a local language cannot be legalized, the way to creating territorial autonomy has to be closed and names of streets have to be written only in the state language (…). We demand the status of Lithuanian language, i.e. the state language, not to be the matter of two-sided relations between Lithuania and Poland” – stated the chairman of the Nationalist Union (Tautininkų sąjunga) Gintaras Songaila. Nationalist promised that they will collect signatures in relation to this issue.

For a few years the relations between Poland and Lithuania have been tense. For years Polish side has accused the Lithuanian on of not meeting its obligations. In Lithuania the double naming of streets and places as well as the original spelling of non-Lithuanian surnames are still not legalized.

Poland also reminds that the process of the return of the land has not been finished, especially in the Vilnius Region and in Vilnius, where local Poles were the owners of real estates nationalized by Soviets. Warsaw and local Poles also protest against the amendment of the Act on education which introduces the so-called unified Lithuanian language exam in all schools in Lithuania.

Source: http://pl.delfi.lt/aktualia/litwa/songaila-ma-byc-zamknieta-droga-do-tworzenia-terytorialnej-autonomii.d?id=60605305

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