Law and Justice Chairman Comments on Polish Independence Day March
“The Polish tradition to which we adhere has nothing in common with anti-Semitism; we are as far removed from that as possible", Law and Justice Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski has said.
"The Polish tradition to which we adhere has nothing in common with anti-Semitism; we are as far removed from that as possible. We have nothing to do with racism, nothing to do with xenophobia. The parties to which I belonged, starting with the Centre Agreement, always defined national identity in cultural terms, as loyalty toward the state, toward, the nation, rather than belonging to a particular ethnic group. There can be no doubt about these matters -- we are clear about that.”
Jarosław Kaczyński commented on Jesse Lehrich, Hillary Clinton’s former foreign policy spokesman, who tweeted that “60,000 Nazis marched on Warsaw.” He said of Lehrich, “He offended tens of thousands of decent people. Nevertheless, extremely unfortunate incidents did take place. That is an understatement – extremely bad, completely unacceptable incidents. The people who were the focus of news reports “represent a minority of a minority, and most likely this was a provocation. Because in the end, people who want to harm Poland know how to do it. These are the very slogans, the shameful nonsense, that do us great harm. Although there were just a few of them, not even one tenth of a percent of those who took part in the celebration, it is enough to provoke a huge offensive that branded tens of thousands of people who simply wanted to show their devotion to Poland as 'Nazis'. It is sad that we have to deal with this and that we therefore have to be very, very careful. But on the other hand, one must remember that when one deals with a crowd of 60,000 people, it’s impossible to control who brings what banner and when he decides to unfurl it, without applying extreme police methods, which is something we simply don’t do. (PAP)
