Kulturkampf made in Lithuania

Sanction for the Polish language

At the end of the year, at the request of the representative of the Lithuanian government, the Vilnius District Court imposed a draconian penalty of 43 400 litas (12 569 euro) on the Šalčininkai District Municipality Administrative Director, Bolesław Daszkiewicz. The motivation behind the decision was the use of information signboards with street names inscribed in Polish, located on private properties. Bolesław Daszkiewicz was punished for the Polish signboards still hanging in the Šalčininkai district, despite the order to remove them. The court and Lithuanian officials omitted the fact that the Polish constitute 80 percent of the population in that region. The director has one month for carrying out the decision. Unless he forces the inhabitants of the Vilnius Region to remove the Polish inscriptions from their private houses, he will pay 100 litas for each day of their prolonged presence there (sic!). The Polish administrative director’s explanations that he does not have the right to enforce the signboards’ removal from private houses, are of no use. The fine has to be paid, the Polish language has to disappear from the streets and the eyes of fanatical officials, who display symptoms of harmful and extremist nationalism poisoning. The ruling’s inconsistency with the international conventions ratified by Lithuania does not matter. It seems that nobody is going to comply with them there, not even the courts.

Destruction of the Polish identity

Both the fight against the Polish language and the destruction of Polishness continues in Lithuania. The abovementioned penalty is not the first instance of the Polish character, culture, and language elimination from the Lithuanian public life. The administrative court repeatedly punished Mrs. Lucyna Kotłowska, the administrative director of the Vilnius District Municipality, with fines up to one thousand litas for the delay in executing the court decision concerning the bilingual signboards with street names’ removal from private houses in the Vilnius Region. All of this happened at the request of the representative of the Lithuanian government, just like in the previous case. Undoubtedly, such actions are a kind of the state’s repressive measures and intimidation of the Polish community, as well as an attempt at destroying the members of the Polish minority (who, at the same time, perform the self-government functions) financially. The image of the Poles’ persecution is completed by the tardiness in returning the land possessions seized in the Soviet Times, the attack on Polish education in the Vilnius Region, as well as the ban on the original, that is Polish, name spelling. The right to one’s own name is one of the most important rights, coming immediately after the right to life. It defines each person’s unique identity. It is counted among the fundamental, and even inherent, human rights. In this case, clinging to the existing legislation by force, equals keeping to the national discrimination in Lithuania. No circuitous explanation provided by successive prime ministers and Mrs. President will help, the violation of fundamental human rights is a fact.

Against treaties

The situation in the Vilnius Region is a special example of the public authorities’ ignorance of  the EU standards championing multiculturalism, multiethnicity, as well as multilingualism. The prohibition on using Polish as a supportive language in the Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts, where Poles constitute the majority of the population (respectively 60 and 80 percent), seems a scandal which smells of discrimination. All the more so when one bears in mind that Poles are the indigenous minority, living there for centuries. Despite this, the Lithuanian authorities have been fighting against the bilingual street names for years. The Law on the State Language predicts nomenclature to appear exclusively in Lithuanian. The situation is even more bizarre due to the fact that, until recently, the Law on National Minorities allowed bilingualism. After 19 years of validity, it was finally abrogated in 2010 (sic!). In this way, the case unprecedented in the EU occurred. National minorities, constituting a significant percentage of this member state’s population, have been deprived of the legal protection. This is an evident legal decline, inconsistent with the recommendations of the OSCE and the Venice Commission. And, most importantly, inconsistent with the spirit of international law. Also the Lisbon Treaty puts a strong emphasis on the protection of cultural and linguistic heritage, supporting linguistic diversity as one of the fundamental principles of the European Union. The EU citizens are provided with this right by Art. 21 and 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which means that any attempt at enforcing linguistic exclusiveness is a violation of the fundamental EU principles. According to the EU law, the very term of linguistic diversity includes official languages, and “semi-official” ones, regional languages, as well as  those not officially recognized in a member state. This definition proves to be especially significant in the context of the dishonourable official fight against multilingualism in Lithuania. Also, the treaty between Lithuania and Poland, in which Lithuania pledged to ensure the national minority an unrestricted usage of its mother tongue, both in private and in public life, is worth mentioning. However, Lithuania has not adhered to it.

Against conventions

Its utter disregard of the Framework Convention  for the Protection of National Minorities fully demonstrates the ill will of Lithuania, whose authorities signed and ratified the convention. They have not implemented it to their legal system, acting against the rules and good international practices. This is why they do not comply with its decisions. In the Framework Convention, it is clearly stated that in areas traditionally inhabited by significant number of people belonging to a national minority, local and street names, as well as other public topographical labeling, should be inscribed also in a minority language. What is more, the possibility of using a minority language in the relations between inhabitants and administrative officials, is also guaranteed. Agreements are to be honoured – this is one of the basic norms in international relations, confirmed by many acts of international law. In the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties it has been stated that each and every treaty is binding, and should be fulfilled in good faith. No treaty’s violation can be justified on the basis of internal law’s resolution. And this is exactly what Lithuania does, justifying its actions with the internal law. Are the Lithuanian authorities aware of this rule?
If so, why do they fail to observe the international law? There is one more convention which Lithuania shuns as much as possible, despite its importance – the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Lithuania belongs to the inglorious (and by no means  numerous) group of countries with a high percentage of national minorities, who have not ratified the Charter. In July 2013, the European Parliament took a strong line on this issue. In a special resolution concerning multilingualism, the EP called on the countries which failed to sign and ratify this Charter, to finally do so. Also, it appealed to condemn all those practices which turn against languages and identities of other communities. To achieve that, they use linguistic discrimination, patent or latent assimilation. If Lithuania wants to be a loyal and sterling member of the EU, it has to meet the demands of the EP. By joining the union in 2004, it condoned the EU law’s supremacy over the national law. If its legal provisions go against the EU norms, they should be changed and adjusted to the European standards. This is of special significance in the crucial matter of national and ethical minorities protection.

Bismarck-style practices

For the Poles, the shameful Lithuanian discrimination is nothing new. They once experienced the destruction of Polishness, the fight against the Polish language and education. These were the results of the German Kulturkampf, introduced when Prussia seized northwestern Poland. All of this happened in the times of Otto von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor”, who fiercely propagated the anti-Polish policies. The ultimate Germanization of the western regions of Prussia, inhabited traditionally by Poles, was the aim of the Prussian authorities’ policies. These actions were premeditated and conducted by all means – using both legal and illegal methods. Polish culture and consciousness were fought against, but it was the Polish language which experienced escalated persecution. Finally, the muzzle law, allowing to use only the German language in public life, was implemented. At schools, the prohibition on teaching in Polish was imposed. These events echoed across Europe, causing protests in many circles. Is the present situation in Lithuania not similar? The methods and goals are almost identical. It is enough to replace the term “Germanization” with “Lithuanization” to make the hundred-year-old description sound contemporary. I only hope that the reaction similar to that against the Prussian discrimination years ago will be repeated. I hope that Europe will reverberate with reactions to the discrimination against Poles in Lithuania, and that it will cause protests in many European environments. The Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council has ended. It turns out that the Lithuanian authorities failed to learn anything throughout its duration, that they did not acknowledge the EU standards concerting national and ethical minorities protection. The actions against the Polish minority in Lithuania have simply gained momentum. Towards the end of the year, the Lithuanian Parliament, supported by Mrs. President, decided against the adoption of the Law on National Minorities in Lithuania. The Seimas made such a decision despite the fact that national minorities constitute as much as 16 percent of all the inhabitants of Lithuania. What is more, draconian penalties imposed for the use of the Polish language prove the administrational persecution of Polish in the Lithuanian public life. By taking such steps, Lithuania alienates itself from fully democratic countries.

Dr. Bogusław Rogalski, political scientist
ECR Advisor for International Affairs in the European Parliament

Source: http://l24.lt/pl/opinie-i-komentarze/item/24996-kulturkampf-po-litewsku

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