Polish state officials commemorate Independence Day in Warsaw
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, along with parliamentary speakers and deputy prime ministers, has attended the main Independence Day observances at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.
On Tuesday, the country celebrated the 107th anniversary of regaining its independence after more than a century of partitions.
The president, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski, Senate Speaker Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, and Lower House Speaker Szymon Holownia laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and attended the changing of the guard.
"A free, independent and sovereign Poland is our commitment," Nawrocki said in his speech. "The president of Poland will never allow us to become once again the peacock and parrot of nations, passively repeating whatever comes from the West," he vowed.
The president expressed his support of Poland's presence in the EU, but noted: "First and foremost, Poland, first and foremost, the Polish people."
The defence minister announced that the country had 215,000 soldiers, and that since November 6, a total of 15,000 individuals had signed up for voluntary defence training. "This is practical, everyday patriotism," he said. "This is service and commitment to the homeland."
Poland won back its independence on November 11, 1918, in the aftermath of World War I, after 123 years of partitions by its neighbours, Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary. (PAP)
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