prime-ministers-of-poland

"The legitimacy of the second kind, which can be called pragmatic, refers to everything that the state has to provide to the citizens. You can say what the state does to fulfil the needs of citizens, and how it serves the community."

"In the West, the fight [against inflation] is waged by limiting the purchasing power of people, and this will probably bring about an effect quite quickly. Wage growth there is much lower than inflation. We cannot follow this path, because it would be felt much more by Poles. We will not limit social benefits; we will lower taxes. We have to explain this to voters."

"We must unite as a nation. Unity is a state of awareness, but it also needs to reflect on the real aspects of life, such as fair distribution of goods and the equality of rights. Such equality does not exist in today’s Poland, and there is no justified distribution of goods. We know that the distribution of goods cannot be equal at all times, but it must be justified by appropriate norms. We must remember that unity exists when everyone can rely on support in good times as well as in the times of hardship. We must build this unity."

"There will be no Polexit, it is a propaganda invention that has been used many times against us. We unequivocally see the future of Poland in the European Union."

"People have to vaccinate, this is the basic issue. Considering the realities and reluctance of a large part of society, we need to consider what we can do here. I am returning to the efficiency of the state: the courts are the last instance here - without reforming them, persuading them to obey the law, because that is what it is all about, it is difficult to change. This affects the functioning of the entire state, at various levels, and this must be taken into account."

"In the EU there is a rule: who is stronger is better. And because Germany is strongest, the old German concept – a concept that can be called neo-imperial – holds sway. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, wants to build a superstate of world importance under German leadership."

"But we can ask the public what it wants. What kind of Poland? Is it the one which we had, or the one which is ahead of us. Poland – let me repeat again – of security, freedom, equality, justice and solidarity."

"We will struggle without the trust, because the change is a difficult process that will meet opposition. We need this social support, so we can make those changes for the sake of our country, and so that we can fulfil our great plans for the sake of our community. These plans involve boosting our economy, which develops, according to some claims. However, ladies and gentlemen, it develops at a pace too slow and below our capabilities."

"We must also strengthen our special services. Especially in one case, which is today very important. This is the war on terrorism. We need to be protected. The danger can come from various sides. And we have to remember that. Each responsible authority must keep this in mind and not create a legal situation of helplessness."

"A country is not only an organization covering a given territory. The state is and should be a moral quality. We have addressed this for a long time, for over twenty years. Now, I will repeat it again. This moral quality, expressed by other means, determines the legitimacy of the state."

"Major changes are required in the education – we need to raise our behavioral standards; we need to instill the essential sense of identity. We cannot succeed without our identity and we learnt that from other countries’ experience. Those that succeeded have built strong unity, whereas our unity has been consistently destroyed over the last 20 years."

"The road ahead is clear and its destination is more than just a mandate. We aim higher; we want to change Poland. We want to improve Poland to enable our entire nation to make use of its full potential, so that we can move forward and eliminate the divisions between us and our western neighbors. Our ultimate goal is strong and successful Poland!"

"In Russia, the media feeds people with messages that have nothing to do with reality – even being a brutal and crude denial of it – and we also have media [in Poland] that work at least similarly. The media is a major constraint on our public debate."

"The program of deep changes in our country will not slow down, on the contrary — there cannot be any talk about reaching an agreement with powers that for years treated Poland as their own private loot."

"The first is of a historical and moral nature. It has roots in the history, tradition, language, culture, cultural codes, a common understanding and understanding of meaning. This legitimacy is immensely important, relating to public awareness, but if you look at Poland, Polish tradition, it also refers to some very specific demands, translating into concrete demands. It is the demand for freedom, equality and justice."

"There is something in Poland, that puts emphasis on what also in the West of Europe, in many countries, wiped out freedom, and especially freedom of expression. This thing is political correctness. I want to say one thing, of course, we do not accept any laws on hate speech and similar inventions aimed to ensure that freedom is eliminated. I will say even more. Poland should be an island of freedom, even if everywhere else it will be limited. We were once an island of tolerance in Europe, and now we should become an island of freedom. And we need not be ashamed. This is our banner and great asset. This is our moral strength. This is not always so with equality and justice."

"Today the rejection of evil is something extremely important, because evil is attacking our country, our fatherland, our nation, it is attacking the institution that is at the heart of our identity, the Catholic church."

"We must succeed in order to take the first step to reform Poland, so that we seize opportunities waiting for us beyond the Polish borders. The first step is to establish a government, strong in its foundation and strong in its constitution. Government that will be strengthened by its cooperation with the President, but that will also remain open to others."

"Unity is also our health service. (...) We can make it better if we change the way of thinking. The health service must be about treating patients, not just providing a paid service. Doctors have a duty to treat patients. Although money is a part of such treatment, it must remain a secondary factor, because the health service must put patients’ interests first."

"Dear all, the rule of law is not something you can declare, decree even in the Constitution. It is an attribute of some form of social organization. The fundamental element in this type of organization is with the balance of power. If a certain social force enjoys a great superiority, it will always instrumentally dominate the law. It will always bring it under its own control. There is no other way. It is the balance that is needed."

"I had said we would face an uphill battle and that stones would be thrown. We are being attacked internally and from the outside ... in ways that discount the reality and aim to demean ... Poland. It's easy to serve the interests of the most powerful. If you want to serve the society, the nation, it's much more difficult."

"The white-and-red banner is the symbol of our country, the symbol prescribed in our Constitution. Symbols build unity, create unity, but at the same time symbols are there to remind us and realize that between the public domain, i.e. the national domain and the value domain, there is a direct relationship. This is the fundamental truth."

"I will return to freedom, equality, justice and solidarity. Let us ask, what is the inverse to those terms. They are the reverse to one principle, which unfortunately in today Poland, still has not been eliminated. This is the principle of who the stronger, the better."

"Today, when it comes to modern states, this legitimacy breaks down to at least five types. These include external security, internal security, in the modern state, especially social security, as well as commercial and economic security. Finally, the security that every state must provide to its citizens as it guarantees to itself. The state is also a dispenser of goods. And all of these processes, which are associated with the use of coercion and distribution of goods may deviate to a form of pathology and can lead to various kinds of abuse. That is why we have to treat the fifth type of security very seriously. I think we can say that what Poles expect today from the state is security, freedom, equality and justice, which in Poland is always linked with solidarity. These are particularly important expectations."

"Unity means also a strong identity with the nation, as well as confidence and pride in being Polish. Our pride has been degraded for over 20 years; we were taught to be ashamed; our image was discredited outside our borders; we fell victim to slanders. We can and we will stand up against this phenomenon in Poland, by changing our education programs and introducing new cultural values, but we will also stand up on the international and global scene. We must want to defend our pride and dignity in order to be what we ought to be – a great European nation!"

"One can talk about two movements legitimizing Poland’s identity – aside from the one, which is very important in a democracy, and which in any case we do not undermine, and that is the formal, legal formation. So, the formal one arises from election procedures, law-making procedures, i.e. everything in a democracy which is very, very important and which in no way we would question. But there are also movements that go deeper than state building. You can talk about two such movements."

"I understand people curse. I do it myself in stores, although of course I am aware that my situation is very different and I do not even try to compare myself and my financial situation to those who earn an average or little income."

"We are a serious player and therefore more and more heavy guns are being brought against us. When it was decided to expand the European Union, it was probably assumed that our part of Europe would be in the situation of weaker, non-subject countries, used as cheap labor for a very long time. This has started to change, which many in the West do not like. We received the first such signals in the 1990s, when we were poor. It was thought that we would remain like the countries of the South, and today it turned out that in this sense Poland is a country of the North."

"We have survived the boycott, restrictions and the barrage of instigatory propaganda. The Government of the United States and some of its customers can see for themselves the bankruptcy of attempts to interfere in Polish internal affairs."

"I do not make any promises. But I do promise one thing - anarchy will not be allowed into Poland. Let no one in Poland or outside cherish any illusions that the present decisions will allow for another round."

"I think, however, that it is better when we solve the Polish matters realistically, with prudence, when we discuss them calmly, normally."

"The rigors of martial law were applied by us sparingly. We started easing and lifting them almost right away, from the very start. Observance of law and order is getting ever stronger. That allows to positively answer the appeal of the patriotic movement of national rebirth, as well as the other social initiatives aiming at a similar direction."

"Exactly one year ago martial law was introduced. The year that has passed was a great test. We have passed it. It has been passed by the party, by the people's authority and all the citizens. But there is the only winner: the Polish nation. This is the shortest-put truth about the past year."

"The suspension of martial law means that its basic rigors will cease to function before the end of this year. Only such regulations should be binding either in full or limited dimension, which directly protect the basic interests of the state, create the shield for the economy and strengthen the personal security of citizens."

"General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Minister of Defence since 1968 and thus a major Warsaw Pact figure, became Prime Minister in February 1981 and First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party in October 1981. Jaruzelski had taken part in operations against anti-Communist resistance fighters in the late 1940s, had led Poland’s contribution to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and had been in command when Polish troops shot striking shipyard workers in 1970. Jaruzelski claimed he had opposed the last operation and he sought a peaceful settlement with Solidarity, but serious economic problems continued to create discontent in Poland and to lead to criticism of the government. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union pressed Jaruzelski to come out in defence of Communism. This pressure indicated that any meaningful change in the Soviet bloc would have to come from Moscow, and thus underlined the subsequent importance of Gorbachev’s stance."

"To make tomorrow better we must realize tough realities today, to understand the necessity for renunciation."

"The steps taken today serve to preserve the basic features of socialist renewal. All the reforms will be continued in an atmosphere of order, businesslike discussion and discipline, also economic reform."

"We are a sovereign country so we must get out from this crisis by ourselves. We must draw away danger with our own hands. History would never forgive the present generation for wasting this chance."

"Citizens of the Polish People's Republic, Difficult years are behind us. Hard times had rolled over the Polish lands. They had produced internal splits and dangerously weakened that bond that throughout centuries was uniting Poles in the face of the greatest dangers. I will not recall those pre-December days. We all remember them. Nothing can conceal the merciless meaning of the then facts. It is only facts that truly count in politics, in the life of nations."

"We wish a great Poland, great with its achievements, culture, forms of social life, its position in Europe. The only way to gain this is by socialism accepted by society, constantly enriched by the everyday life experience."

"In 1996, Jaruzelski was to comment ‘I always considered myself a Polish soldier and a Polish patriot first’. He possibly thought of himself as another Józef Piłsudski, who had taken over the Polish government in 1926 and instituted a benign, quasi-military dictatorship. As Prime Minister, Jaruzelski downgraded the role of the highly unpopular Polish Communist Party and sought to play off Solidarity against the Soviet Union in order to gain concessions from each – stability and aid respectively. However, temperamentally, Jaruzelski found uncertainty difficult. In an effort to end political unrest and strikes, he declared martial law on 13 December 1981, arresting Solidarity’s leaders and thousands of others without trial (scores were killed), and appointing a military council to govern Poland. On that day, with American attention riveted on Poland, Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister, annexed the occupied Golan Heights. Martial law remained in place in Poland until July 1983 and indicated the strength and weakness of the Communist system: it could maintain order, but could not provide the economic growth or popular support that made order much more than a matter of coercion and indoctrination. Opposition in Poland remained at a far greater scale and was far more popular than the left-wing terrorist movements in the West such as November 17 in Greece, FP-25 in Portugal, and the Cellules Communistes Combattantes in Belgium."

"Citizens. Great is the burden of responsibility that falls on me at this dramatic moment in Polish history. It is my duty to take this responsibility. Poland’s future is at stake-the future for which my generation fought and for which it gave the best years of its life."

"It cannot be said that we didn't show good will, moderation, patience, sometimes there probably was too much of it ... the initiative of the great national understanding was backed by millions of Poles."

"The self-preservation instinct of the nation must be heard. Adventurists must have their hands tied before they push the homeland into the abyss of fratricide."

"The absence of a decision could result in an impetuous, dangerous development of a situation which has got out of any control. There is no ideal solution in such circumstances. The only thing is to find the optimal solution, "a lesser evil.""

"A politician has to bear the weight of decisions whose effects are often enormous. And those decisions have to be taken. A controversial decision is better than no decision or waiving it, since it permits a situation to be brought under control while allowing it to be reined in with the possibility of correction."

"Citizens of the Polish People’s Republic. I turn to you today as a soldier and as the head of the Polish Government. I turn to you in matters of supreme importance. Our country has found itself at the edge of an abyss. The achievements of many generations, the house erected from Polish ashes, is being ruined. The structures of the state are ceasing to function. New blows are being struck every day at the dying economy."

"I am saying this to avoid any suspicion that I want to defend, at no matter what price, the decisions I took. Martial law was an evil which resulted in various human vexations and sufferings which I very much regret. But even so, they were a lesser evil than the multidimensional catastrophe which faced us as a very real danger."

"Were it not for the declaration of martial law, the substantiation of that announcement in mid-winter would have signified not only economic but also biological catastrophe. No grand issues and dilemmas may be studied without their historical backgrounds in separation from the realities of a given moment. A historian seated in the tranquility of archives and libraries can allow his thoughts to wander in various directions. Basing on continually supplemented sources, he knows today what took place in the past. But a politician active at that time knew only what was happening at a given moment. And he also had to take into account that which could take place. A historian enjoys the comfort of delivering evaluations which have no practical effects."

"The nation has come to the end of its psychological endurance. Many people are beginning to despair. Now it is not days but hours that separate us from a national catastrophe. Honesty compels one to ask the question: Did things have to come to this?"