Mościszki will not remove Polish tables!

The inhabitants of the places near the Vilnius are asked for removing the bilingual tables with street names from their houses, however, the majority declines to do so. Today is the deadline, in which according to the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania in the Vilnius Region the non-Lithuanian street names must have been removed. The chairperson of the Department of Law Enforcement of the Local Government of the Vilnius Region went to few houses in the village of Mościszki, none of the people of Mościszki listened to the court’s order…

On June 8, present year the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania obliged the Administration of the Local Government of the Vilnius Region to remove the bilingual tables with the street names, which contradict the Act about the national language. The Local Government of the Vilnius Region had a month to do that.

The mayor of the Vilnius Region Maria Rekść claims that the Administration of the the Local Government of the Vilnius region had no choice but to adjust to the decision of the court, and once again encourage the inhabitants of the Vilnius Region, majority Poles, to remove the bilingual tables. However, they do not give up and firmly object the decision of Lithuanian authorities.

The inhabitants of Mościszki in the ławaryski district, who were informed today in name about the judgment of the court, which orders to remove Polish names, generally reacted very emotionally and announced that they will not remove the tables. They claimed that neither anybody can order them what they have to do on their own place, nor to remove their personal belongings from the wall because at their home they can hang the tables even in few languages – what is the most important is that this basic table should be in the official language, and the Lithuanian name is the first in a row.

‘People cannot understand, who minds about these tables with Polish name and why they must be removed. They are sure that they live in a democratic European country and they have the same rights as other people living in Europe. All the more that Lithuanian authorities has already initiated a dialogue regarding this matter’ – said the mayor of the Vilnius Region Maria Rekść a few days before in the interview for ‘Wilnoteka’.

Lithuanian Ministry of Culture has recently created a work group, which considers the possibilities of the enforcement of the bilingual captions in the new Act about the National Minorities. In the opinion of the representatives of Polish society in Lithuania, the creation of that group is a proof that the Lithuanian government notices the gravity of this problem of bilinguality and tries to find the ways to break the deadlock.

On the basis of: vilniaus-r.lt, own information.

http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/mosciszki-nie-zdejma-polskich-tabliczek

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

Korekta Małgorzata Juchniewicz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu