Waldemar Tomaszewski: I gave 10 thousands lites for the payment of the fine

“Money is not a problem, solidarity is. By announcing this action we were asking even for a symbolic lit in order for more people to join in and show their support.’ – said Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania leader, Waldemar Tomaszewski in Lietuvos Rytas television program. In that way he commented on money gathering for Director of Regional Authority of Soleczniki Bolesław Daszkiewicz, who has to pay the fine for not executing court order to remove bilingual street names.

As Member of the European Parliament admitted, he himself earmarked 10 thousands lites for this aim. ‘The ones that earn more, foreigners, are able to give more. All we want from common people is solidarity and a lot of people already showed it, donating one or five lites.’ – said W. Tomaszewski.

Referring once again to the demarche of LLRA during Day of Freedom Defenders commemoration in Seimas, politician highlighted that 13 January was the most fitting date for such protest so to show cynicism of Vytautas Landsbergis. He noted that the speech of the first leader of Independent Lithuania was scandalous and attacked national minorities.

Asked by a journalist if he thinks that his actions and public statements can be treated as incitement to national discord, Waldemar Tomaszewski answered:

‘Incitement to a discord lies on the other side. Erasing one act, worsening another one – that is incitement to discord. We are only defending ourselves from oppression.’

Commenting opinions of Lithuanian Poles that shows up on the internet, criticizing his activity, Eurpean Parliament member stated:

‘When in my days I fought against system, at the age of 15 I was talking in public about Katyn massacre, letters condemning me showed up as well. If a man want to say something, he shall sign his name on. I do not deny that someone can have different opinion, it’s normal. But proportions show that support for our party is very large. In the last elections approximately 95 percents of poles living in Lithuania voted for us.’

Source: http://zw.lt/wilno-wilenszczyzna/waldemar-tomaszewski-dalem-10-tys-litow-na-zaplacenie-kary/

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