Top government officials and numerous guests from Poland and abroad gathered on Tuesday, 4 June at the Grand Theatre - National Opera in Warsaw to commemorate the democratic breakthrough of 1989. The Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra's gala concert took place exactly 30 years after the first partially free parliamentary elections, which opened a new chapter in the history of Poland and marked the beginning of the rebirth of Polish parliamentarianism.

Among the guests of the event organized by the "Niepodległa" Program Office were Marshals of the Sejm and Senate Marek Kuchciński and Stanisław Karczewski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Gliński, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jacek Czaputowicz, Deputy Minister of Culture Jarosław Sellin and Secretary of State in the Presidential Chancellery Andrzej Dera. The event was also attended by Agnieszka Kaczmarska, Head of the Chancellery of the Sejm. The concert was also attended by parliamentarians, participants and guests of the 4th Summit of Speakers of the Central and Eastern European Parliaments #EUROWAW2019 that was held at the Sejm and Senate.

Welcoming the guests, the Speaker of the Sejm emphasized that the elections of June 4, '89 were the beginning of the political changes, the overthrow of communism and the symbol of the end of the Yalta system in Europe. - These elections were the introduction to the new Republic of Poland. The change required many sacrifices from Poles and taking stock of the past. The changes also affected the world of culture," said Marek Kuchciński.

The Speaker of the Sejm also reminded that 2019 was established by the resolution of the Sejm and the Senate as the Year of Stanislaw Moniuszko on the 200th anniversary of his birth. - We want to remember about the involvement of artistic circles in the process of building national identification especially today," he noted.

- We want these ceremonies to build the unity of the Polish people," said Senate Speaker Stanisław Karczewski, thanking the guests for their presence at the Grand Theatre-National Opera. - Let us take care of our democracy, let us take care of our independence, let us take care of our freedom and let us do it together," he appealed.

In turn, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, in a letter addressed to the participants of the event, noted that June 4, 1989 was one of the stages of the long road to freedom. "Despite years of enslavement, despite years of ideological propaganda, the Polish desire for freedom survived. This impenetrable wisdom of the Polish people remains for me always an inspiration and a lesson," wrote the Prime Minister.

CIS

Photo by Rafał Zambrzycki