During Saturday’s ceremony at Monte Cassino, Donald Tusk’s government committed a significant indecency. Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Radwan-Röhrenschef, of whom we only know that she did not reach the Sejm last fall, appeared at the lowest possible government rank and was uncomfortable in the presence of, for example, Duchess of Edinburgh Zofia, President of Italy Sergio Mattarelli , or Defense Minister of New Zealand Judith Collins, who additionally emphasized that as part of the ceremony she visited the Polish cemetery at this site. The most the Polish government could offer was to read the letter from the Minister of Defense, but… this failed. The Ministry of Defense itself admits that it “doesn’t know why”.
There was also a letter from the minister. We don’t know why it wasn’t read.
There must be a reason to discount the memory of the Battle of Monte Cassino. We know this government and its clumsiness, from the ‘reverberation’ of Minister Kierwiński through the relegation of state television to a boring channel, to the omission of Polish candidates for the position of, for example, the head of the Military Committee of the European Union Well, knowing this government, this mediocrity can be understood and the poor representation on the 80th anniversary of the great battle can be attributed to it.
Another reason could be the natural carelessness of the current government towards historical policies and the memory of heroes who fought for Polish independence. It is clear that modernity, let’s not do politics (let’s build a footbridge), let’s take down the crosses, let’s remove the classics of Polish literature from the school canon – not much attention is paid to the memory of the Second World War and Poland’s efforts in the west.
Malicious people would say that Tusk did not want to offend the Germans by perhaps recalling the courage of his friends, but on a very inglorious side.
However, the current administration’s latest steps, identity-related steps, may mean more than carelessness or simple ill will. Perhaps today’s elites feel ready to reshape national consciousness on a larger scale. In the past, there was always something disturbing: John Paul II, the PiS government, the Smolensk tragedy or the cult of the Cursed Soldiers, which mobilized the patriotic part of society. But what is it now? Who stands in the way of the strongest politicians of ‘this country’ from breaking through the corset of Polishness and, without pretenses, moving at an accelerated pace towards Europeanization? Are we standing? Maybe we stand too shaky and too resolute?
Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.