Warsaw 2021-2022: Attempts to stigmatize the German minority

Country                                                Poland 

Year                                                       2021-2022

Affected group/minority              German minority

Perpetrator                                       Janusz Kowalski, Member of Parliament in the Polish Sejm 

Type of case                                       Hate speech

Type of act                                          Verbal

Media:                                                  Traditional media / Social media

Reactions:                                           no information

Brief description:            

The Association of German Social-Cultural Societies in Poland (SKGD) and the Social-Cultural Society of Germans (VdG) in Opole Silesia have decided to sue Janusz Kowalski (Member of Parliament in the Polish Sejm) for violating the personal interests of the organizations mentioned above and the German minority community in general.

The lawsuit relates to a series of public statements by Janusz Kowalski that contain false information and insinuations and are also aimed at discrediting and stigmatizing the German minority. Janusz Kowalski has repeatedly spoken with impunity about the "unjustified electoral privilege of the German minority", referring to the exemption from the 5% threshold in elections. The fact is that the possibility for committees to stand as candidates and thus be exempted from the 5% election threshold applies to all national minorities and arises from the electoral law.

Furthermore, Mr. Kowalski accused the German minority of illegally affixing German names of the stations in Chrząstowice/Chronstau and Debska Kuźnia/Danietz, which were placed on the plaques following the law.

The MP also claimed that the education subsidy of 236 million earmarked for teaching German as a minority language was transferred to the German minority, which does not reflect the truth since the German minority does not receive direct funding for teaching in their mother tongue. These funds are to be transferred to local authorities.

Commenting on the situation, Mr Rafał Bartek, the President of the VdG, outlined that the community of the German minority in Poland is outraged by the statements of Mr. Janusz Kowalski:

“Mr. Kowalski's statements are not only untrue in many cases, but they also stir up bitterness in the German minority, but above all fear, humiliation and stigmatization. In a democratic country, we cannot allow a public figure, a member of the Polish Parliament, to pass on false information and intimidate people with his statements. This is incompatible with the exercise of his parliamentary mandate. We have to defend ourselves against such a narrative. Today it is the German minority, tomorrow it could be any other minority, any other social group. That's why we decided to file a lawsuit against Mr. Kowalski, saying: Enough of Mr. Kowalski's lies."

The organizations are demanding a public apology in the public and social media and compensation of PLN 20,000 for the charitable association of Germans in Silesia. The claim is pending.

Examples of malicious statements:

"The German minority has stabbed the Republic of Poland in the back, it has stabbed the Polish state in the back",

"For 30 years - as I have already said - the Germans have been violating the rights of the Polish minority in Germany. They do not finance the teaching of the Polish language. Germany has brazenly failed to issue regulations implementing Articles 21-24 of the Treaty of June 1991, which deal precisely with minorities and the financing of language teaching, so that the German Länder can finance the teaching of Polish as their mother tongue, the language of the Treaty. In other words, the Germans spat in our faces for 30 years! The Germans make fun of us. The Germans are denying the Poles and the Polish diaspora funding for language learning and the recognition of their rights."

"The Germans manipulate and lie in their struggle for funds from the Polish budget by claiming that the countries allegedly finance the learning of the Polish language for Poles as their mother tongue. This is a lie."

"The German minority lies, lies, lies again! It is creating chaos by inciting the Kashubians against the United Right,"

"Activists of the German minority in Poland speak out directly against the granting of minority status to Poland and the Polish community in West Germany by the German state."

"The Germans are manipulating and lying in their fight for money from the Polish budget by claiming that the countries are supposedly funding Polish language education for Polish as a mother tongue. This is a lie. Some federal states finance language instruction within the framework of the HLT system (language of origin), which also includes other minority languages such as Turkish or Romanian. In this case, the lessons do not take place on the basis of the German-Polish Treaty on Good Neighbourliness of June 1991. For more information, please refer to the attached letter from Polish organizations in Germany."

"(...) a part of the German establishment in Opole wants to falsify the history of free Poland, because it must be clearly stated that the history of the Silesian uprisings has been falsified for many years in the Third Republic of Poland, especially in the Third Republic of Poland, in a kind of unhealthy sense of reconciliation education, or, above all, concealed, which is absolutely unacceptable (...)",

"Under unlawful pressure from the German minority in Opole, the German names of the railway stations in Chrząstowice and Dębska Kuźnia in Opole were added.

"Under unlawful pressure from the German minority in Opole, the German names of the railway stations in Chrząstowice and Dębska Kuźnia in Opole were added".

More information on the case can be obtained from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJjTZM_xOPw

Photo:

Paweł Małecki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl