President: thank Polonia for defending Poland’s good name

I want to thank the Polonia and Poles abroad for supporting Poland and defending its good name; I ask you not to stop, we cannot settle on our laurels. President Andrzej Duda said on Friday during the Convention of the Polish community and Poles abroad.

President Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda, gathered on Friday in the gardens of the Presidential Palace with the participants of the VI Polonia Congress and Poles Abroad. The President also granted honorary patronage to the convention.

“Thank you for supporting us each day, for defending the good name of Poland, for carrying out actions in your countries, which are defending this good name of Poland, and for reacting.
This has changed a lot in the international sphere”. – Said the President during the ceremony, while addressing representatives of the Polish community.

The President thanked for the support Poland received, due to which we were welcomed into the North Atlantic Alliance. “It is hard to think today what would happen if we were not part of this Alliance,” – he said, highlighting the importance of the presence of allied troops in Poland.

The President also thanked for the support that Poles at home and abroad had shown to Ukrainians after Russian aggression against Ukraine started. As he pointed out, this influenced the image of Poles in the world. For sure Poland will be slandered in the nearest future, for sure they will speak badly, write badly about Poland, about Poles, taking out various things – both true and untrue – manipulating facts, creating lies.” – The president emphasised.

Andrzej Duda wished the convention attendees to leave the country with new strength, pride and faith that the homeland is developing well. He also assured that “despite all the winds that are blowing, together we are somehow managing to grow Poland’s potential”.

“Poland is becoming stronger and stronger. This can be seen in the development of infrastructure in Poland, in the standard of living of the Polish people, and also in the positions we are slowly and laboriously beginning to occupy in various places around the world. This work must persevere,” he pointed out. “If we want to move from the bottom rungs to where we should be, i.e. to rungs much higher than some would like to see us, then, unfortunately, one has to have tough elbows and be resistant to the various kinds of kicks we experience.” – He said.

“You have to do what you have to do, so thank you for doing what you are doing.” – He also addressed the attendees.

Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda thanked Polish communities from around the world for their extraordinary solidarity with Ukraine and for the financial and material support they have provided to Ukrainians who are escaping their country from Russian aggression. She noted that the American Polish community responded very quickly to her appeal for support of Ukraine.

The First Lady assured that the aid had been used efficiently. As she said, it was possible to organise, among other things, nearly eighty transports with humanitarian supplies to Ukraine. When doing so, she pointed out that the aid also includes Ukrainians who have found refuge in our country. “We have been organising training courses for Ukrainian doctors since last autumn. Four cycles of these courses have already taken place.” – She added.

Jarosław Narkiewicz, President of the Council of the World’s Polish Diaspora, thanked the Presidential Couple for their efforts to support the Polish community abroad. President of the Polish Community Association Dariusz Piotr Bonislawski, meanwhile, emphasised that for all those who deal with the Polish community, the President’s activities in support of Poles abroad are extremely important. “At the same time, I would like to declare that the mission of building a community of 60 million people, united around the majesty of the Republic of Poland, which you, Mr President and Mrs President, beautifully embodied, will always be supported by the Polish Community Association.” – He declared.