Post by pjotr on Jan 9, 2017 0:55:39 GMT 1
Dear Fellow Forum members,
I have a few questions about the political, geopolitical, international, diplomatic, financial, economical, social-cultural, scientific and human role of Poland and the Poles in Central- and Eastern-Europe and the world. First I want to say that as a half Pole I am proud and touched by the achievements of Poles and Poland in the history of mankind (Nicolaus Copernicus, Joseph Conrad, Frédéric Chopin and Marie Skłodowska Curie), and the achievements after the collapse of Communism in 1989. However I am concerned about the situation in Europe as a continent in general and Poland in particular, due to the polarization, discord and some authoritarian elements in the present Beata Szydło cabinet of the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) lead government, with a dominant role of party leader Jarosław Kaczyński.
Personally I see Poland somewhere inbetween the Hungary of Viktor Orbán and the Russian Federation of Vladimir Putin, and that in my point of view is not a positive development, situation or political reality. That is my personal subjective opinion. This is a Forum with Forum members. Like in the democracy Poland these Forum members, you, have different (various) opinions. What do you think about the role of Polish politicians, leaders and the Roman-Catholic church inside Poland, and what do you think about Poland's role in the European continent in the European Union with the Polish President of the European Council Donald Tusk? And what do you think about Poland as a strategic country and bridge between Germany and the Russian Federation?
Here a couple of questions:
- How do you think about the role of the Roman-Catholic church and the clergy (priests) in the Polish society, education system and politics. Do you have a separation of Chruch and state or are certain conservative Roman-Catholic circles dominant in Polish politics via the government party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość of Jarosław Kaczyński, Beata Szydło and Andrzej Duda?
- How well protected or preserved is the judiciary (also known as the judicial system or court system), the separation of powers (the trias politica principle), the independence of Judges, prosecutor (Prokurator in Polish) and thus the legal system, Statute (law), jurisdiction, and legal doctrine (the education of law and the legal system on Polish universities) in Poland?
- How well protected are the civil liberties in Poland? (the freedom from torture, freedom from forced disappearance, freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life. Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, and the right to bodily integrity.)
- How do you see the Polish opposition in Poland at this moment? (The opposition parties in the Polish parliament: Civic Platform [Platforma Obywatelska, PO], Modern [Nowoczesna, .N], United Left [Zjednoczona Lewica, ZL], and the Polish People's Party [Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL])
- What do you think about the role the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Polish: Komitet Obrony Demokracji, KOD) plays right now? ( KOD is a Polish civic organization, founded in November 2015 by a group of citizens including Mateusz Kijowski, as a result of, and triggered by, the Polish constitutional crisis, 2015. The organization is independent of any political parties[1] and has declared that it has no intention to transform into one, but its events and actions are supported by the liberal opposition including the Nowoczesna (Modern) and Civic Platform (PO) parties. It is opposed to the actions of the government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. P.S.- Bonobo posted a thread about KOD demonstrations in Kraków and other Polish cities on this Forum.)
- What do you think of KOD leader Mateusz Kijowski? (Mateusz Kijowski (born Dec 12, 1968 in Warsaw, Poland) – an IT specialist,[1] journalist,[2] social activist, and blogger. Kijowski studied mathematics at the University of Warsaw. He transferred to Faculty of Family Sciences (Polish: Instytut Studiów nad Rodziną) at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (former Warsaw Theological Academy). After one year he transferred yet again, this time, to study Journalism. He dropped out from university and started working at a clothing company, designing outdoor recreation gear. In 1991, he started working in the IT Department of Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. At the end of 1993 he was hired by Computer Education Center (Polish: Centrum Edukacji Komputerowej), where he was training network administrators. In year 2000 he graduated from College of Management (Polish: Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania) at the Polish Open University (de) with a degree in business information management. He wrote his thesis on volume oscillators. )
- How do you see Polands relationship with with the comming Donald Trump adminstration of the USA? Will the relations stay stabile and firm or will Trump move his attention eastwards, and will Trump try to form an alliance with Putin against terrorism and a possible new global recession?
- How will the present Polish government keep good bilateral ties with the other Western nations; Canada, Australia and New Zealand?
- How do you see Polands position and role in the European Union?
- How do you see Polands role in NATO?
Emblem of the Weimar Battlegroup.
- How do ypu see Polands role in the Weimar Triangle? ( The "Weimar Triangle" is, loosely, a grouping of Poland, Germany, and France. The group is intended to promote co-operation between the three countries in crisis zones. It exists mostly in the form of summit meetings between the leaders of these three countries, the most recent of which occurred on 7 February 2011. Previous meetings took place in Poznań, Poland (1998), Nancy, France (1999), Hambach, Germany (2001) and Nancy, France (2005). The Weimar Triangle also involves lower-level connections, such as the annual meeting between Foreign Ministers.)
Political map of the "Weimar Triangle"
- How do you see the role of Poland in the Visegrád Group? (Poland is the largest and most important country in that group. The Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four, or V4 is an alliance of four Central European states – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – for the purposes of furthering their European integration, as well as for advancing military, economic and energy cooperation with one another. The group used to be occasionally referred to as the Visegrád Triangle, due to the fact that it was originally an alliance of three states – the term has not been valid since 1993, but does continue to appear sometimes.)
- Poland intends to double the seize of it's armed forces which implies a huge increase in defense spending. How do you see the military role in the region seen the tensions and civil war in Ukraine, and the Russian thread at the borders of the Baltic States, and Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, (Kaliningrad Oblast used to be the most heavily militarized area of what is now the Russian Federation, and the density of military infrastructure was the highest in Europe. It was the headquarters of the former Soviet Baltic Military District. Kaliningrad also functions as the headquarters of the Russia's Baltic Fleet, ringed by Chernyakhovsk (air base), Donskoye (air base) and Kaliningrad Chkalovsk (naval air base).) the Russian naval presence on the Baltic Sea. (And seen the good Slovakia-Russian Federation relations. Unlike Czech Republic, which has some negative view over Russia due to the past, Slovakia is seemed to have a better relations with Russia.) The Russian Airforce also provokes Central- and Western-European nations by flying military aircraft over Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Danish and Dutch (Friesland/Groningen, Northern Netherlands, where the Russian military Planes were intercepted by allied Danish F-16 Planes). What role do you see for the expanding Polish army and the newly established civilian Para-military self defense militia?
- Polish embassies are all over the world and so are Polish diplomats. Poland plays a diplomatic role in the world and has a lot of bilateral and multilateral ties. How important is the role of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych) and Polish diplomacy in the world (United Nations), in the EU (in conflicts between EU memberstates), in the Ukraine (in the war between the Ukrainian army and the Eastern-Ukrainian Russian seperatists who are supported by the Russian Federation), in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Poland has good ties with both Israel and Arab countries -including the Palestinian Authority-), in Syria (negotiations between the Syrian government and the insurgents/rebels) and in other conflict areas.
- How do you see the role and position (Geographic location and strategic position) of Poland in Central- and Eastern-Europe?
- How do you see Poland in the slavic world as a whole, as being part of all slavic nations? (Poland next to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia) Is there some Pan-Slavic identity, connection, affiliation, cultural, linguistic, historical, ethnic or political connection or is it that each Slavic people are on their own. Are slavs split in West-Slavs, East-Slavs and Southern-Slavs? Or is the historic division between Roman-Catholic slavic people (Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Croats and Slovenes), and Eastern Christian Orthodox slavic people (Russians, Belarussians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs and Montenegrins)
- What are your hopes, desires, dreams, fears, anxieties, and predictions about the Polish-Russian relations in the near future. What measures, steps, actions should Poland take towards the Russian Federation in the sense of bilateral ties, diplomacy, trade deals, the larger Foreign Affairs image (NATO, UN, EU, Visgrad Group, the Weimar Triangle), Defense, security (safety) policies, legal terms, customs, Polish-Russian joint ventures, Polish Export- and Import to the Russian Federation (Polish farmers, entrepreneurs, business people and companies, and thus also employers and employee's suffer from the sanctions of the West towards Russia, because in counter sanctions from the Russian Federation Polish products are blocked from the Russian market.)
- What are your predictions of the Polish-Ukrainian relations in the near future. (Will Ukainian Nationalism, chauvinism and anti-Polonism harm the relationship in the near future, will celenbrations of Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi Germany -Ukrainian SS, Ukrainian nationalist leaders like Bandera- and the neglect of the heritage of Ukrainian war crimes in Volhynia [Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia] harm Polish-Ukrainian relations? Or will Poles and Ukrainians finally get over their past and move towards new good neighborship, good diplomatic, trade, customs (border control), and financial-economical, cultural, educational (cooperation between Polish and Urkrainian universities, research centers and thus scientists), technological, Industrial, environmental, political [relations between Polish and Ukrainian Social-democrats, Liberals and conservatives] cooperation?)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Lithuania?
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and the Czech Republic?
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Slovakia? (Bonobo, you do not live so far away from the Slovak border. You would probably like to go on vacation to Slovakia like other Poles. Do you know Slovakia, Slovaks and the Policies of the Slovak government? How are the Polish-Slovak relations today?)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Hungary and Slovakia? (Which have been strained in the last decades, due to the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. The Hungarian minority in Romania also has had difficult times.)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Hungary? (Hungary–Poland relations are the foreign relations between Hungary and Poland. Relations between the two states date back to the Middle Ages. The two peoples have traditionally enjoyed a close friendship rooted in a history of shared rulers and faith. Both countries commemorate their fraternal relationship on March 23. Good relations between Poland and Hungary date back to the Middle Ages. The Polish and Hungarian noble houses (as Piast dynasty or House of Árpád) often intermarried with each other; renowned Hungarian King Saint Ladislaus was half Polish). Louis the Great was king of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and king of Poland from 1370 until his death in 1382. He was his father’s heir, Charles I of the House of Anjou-Sicily (King of Hungary and Croatia) and his uncle’s heir, Casimir III the Great (king of Poland - last of the Piast dynasty). King Casimir had no legitimate sons. Apparently, in order to provide a clear line of succession and avoid dynastic uncertainty, he arranged for his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, to be his successor in Poland. Louis' younger daughter Saint Jadwiga of Poland inherited the Polish throne, and became one of the most popular monarchs of Poland. In the 15th century, the two countries briefly shared the same king again, Poland's Władysław III of Varna, who perished, aged barely twenty, fighting the Turks at Varna, Bulgaria. In the 16th century, Poland elected as her king a Hungarian nobleman, Stefan Batory, who is regarded as one of Poland's greatest kings.
Revolution of 1956
A student demonstration in Budapest in support of the Polish October and asking for similar reforms in Hungary was one of the events that sparked the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. During the revolution, Poles demonstrated their support for the Hungarians by donating blood for them; by 12 November 1956, 11,196 Poles had donated. The Polish Red Cross sent 44 tons of medical supplies to Hungary by air; even larger amounts were sent by road and rail.
Friendship Day
On March 12, 2007, Hungary's parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship", with 324 votes in favor, none opposed, and no abstentions. Four days later, the Polish parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship" by acclamation.)
Demonstration in Poznan in 1956 in solidarity with the Hungarian uprising in Budapest
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Germany? (Bonobo, Jeanne - Jeanne, I know you hate politics, but maybe you can reply on the Roman-Catholic subject, because Roman-Catholicism has your particular and special interest!)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and the Netherlands? (In the Hague, the Dutch capital 30,000 Polish people form the Polish community there).
- How are the relations between Poland and other Roman-Catholic countries in Europe and Northern-America (Mexico, USA and Candada)? Is there a connection or does secularisation, Nationalism, and cultural (linguistic, ethnic and political) differences create distances, and in that case does the Roman-Catholic faith not play a role?
Cheers,
Pieter
I have a few questions about the political, geopolitical, international, diplomatic, financial, economical, social-cultural, scientific and human role of Poland and the Poles in Central- and Eastern-Europe and the world. First I want to say that as a half Pole I am proud and touched by the achievements of Poles and Poland in the history of mankind (Nicolaus Copernicus, Joseph Conrad, Frédéric Chopin and Marie Skłodowska Curie), and the achievements after the collapse of Communism in 1989. However I am concerned about the situation in Europe as a continent in general and Poland in particular, due to the polarization, discord and some authoritarian elements in the present Beata Szydło cabinet of the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) lead government, with a dominant role of party leader Jarosław Kaczyński.
Personally I see Poland somewhere inbetween the Hungary of Viktor Orbán and the Russian Federation of Vladimir Putin, and that in my point of view is not a positive development, situation or political reality. That is my personal subjective opinion. This is a Forum with Forum members. Like in the democracy Poland these Forum members, you, have different (various) opinions. What do you think about the role of Polish politicians, leaders and the Roman-Catholic church inside Poland, and what do you think about Poland's role in the European continent in the European Union with the Polish President of the European Council Donald Tusk? And what do you think about Poland as a strategic country and bridge between Germany and the Russian Federation?
Here a couple of questions:
- How do you think about the role of the Roman-Catholic church and the clergy (priests) in the Polish society, education system and politics. Do you have a separation of Chruch and state or are certain conservative Roman-Catholic circles dominant in Polish politics via the government party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość of Jarosław Kaczyński, Beata Szydło and Andrzej Duda?
- How well protected or preserved is the judiciary (also known as the judicial system or court system), the separation of powers (the trias politica principle), the independence of Judges, prosecutor (Prokurator in Polish) and thus the legal system, Statute (law), jurisdiction, and legal doctrine (the education of law and the legal system on Polish universities) in Poland?
- How well protected are the civil liberties in Poland? (the freedom from torture, freedom from forced disappearance, freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life. Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, and the right to bodily integrity.)
- How do you see the Polish opposition in Poland at this moment? (The opposition parties in the Polish parliament: Civic Platform [Platforma Obywatelska, PO], Modern [Nowoczesna, .N], United Left [Zjednoczona Lewica, ZL], and the Polish People's Party [Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL])
- What do you think about the role the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Polish: Komitet Obrony Demokracji, KOD) plays right now? ( KOD is a Polish civic organization, founded in November 2015 by a group of citizens including Mateusz Kijowski, as a result of, and triggered by, the Polish constitutional crisis, 2015. The organization is independent of any political parties[1] and has declared that it has no intention to transform into one, but its events and actions are supported by the liberal opposition including the Nowoczesna (Modern) and Civic Platform (PO) parties. It is opposed to the actions of the government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. P.S.- Bonobo posted a thread about KOD demonstrations in Kraków and other Polish cities on this Forum.)
- What do you think of KOD leader Mateusz Kijowski? (Mateusz Kijowski (born Dec 12, 1968 in Warsaw, Poland) – an IT specialist,[1] journalist,[2] social activist, and blogger. Kijowski studied mathematics at the University of Warsaw. He transferred to Faculty of Family Sciences (Polish: Instytut Studiów nad Rodziną) at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (former Warsaw Theological Academy). After one year he transferred yet again, this time, to study Journalism. He dropped out from university and started working at a clothing company, designing outdoor recreation gear. In 1991, he started working in the IT Department of Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. At the end of 1993 he was hired by Computer Education Center (Polish: Centrum Edukacji Komputerowej), where he was training network administrators. In year 2000 he graduated from College of Management (Polish: Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania) at the Polish Open University (de) with a degree in business information management. He wrote his thesis on volume oscillators. )
- How do you see Polands relationship with with the comming Donald Trump adminstration of the USA? Will the relations stay stabile and firm or will Trump move his attention eastwards, and will Trump try to form an alliance with Putin against terrorism and a possible new global recession?
- How will the present Polish government keep good bilateral ties with the other Western nations; Canada, Australia and New Zealand?
- How do you see Polands position and role in the European Union?
- How do you see Polands role in NATO?
Emblem of the Weimar Battlegroup.
- How do ypu see Polands role in the Weimar Triangle? ( The "Weimar Triangle" is, loosely, a grouping of Poland, Germany, and France. The group is intended to promote co-operation between the three countries in crisis zones. It exists mostly in the form of summit meetings between the leaders of these three countries, the most recent of which occurred on 7 February 2011. Previous meetings took place in Poznań, Poland (1998), Nancy, France (1999), Hambach, Germany (2001) and Nancy, France (2005). The Weimar Triangle also involves lower-level connections, such as the annual meeting between Foreign Ministers.)
Political map of the "Weimar Triangle"
- How do you see the role of Poland in the Visegrád Group? (Poland is the largest and most important country in that group. The Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four, or V4 is an alliance of four Central European states – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – for the purposes of furthering their European integration, as well as for advancing military, economic and energy cooperation with one another. The group used to be occasionally referred to as the Visegrád Triangle, due to the fact that it was originally an alliance of three states – the term has not been valid since 1993, but does continue to appear sometimes.)
- Poland intends to double the seize of it's armed forces which implies a huge increase in defense spending. How do you see the military role in the region seen the tensions and civil war in Ukraine, and the Russian thread at the borders of the Baltic States, and Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, (Kaliningrad Oblast used to be the most heavily militarized area of what is now the Russian Federation, and the density of military infrastructure was the highest in Europe. It was the headquarters of the former Soviet Baltic Military District. Kaliningrad also functions as the headquarters of the Russia's Baltic Fleet, ringed by Chernyakhovsk (air base), Donskoye (air base) and Kaliningrad Chkalovsk (naval air base).) the Russian naval presence on the Baltic Sea. (And seen the good Slovakia-Russian Federation relations. Unlike Czech Republic, which has some negative view over Russia due to the past, Slovakia is seemed to have a better relations with Russia.) The Russian Airforce also provokes Central- and Western-European nations by flying military aircraft over Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Danish and Dutch (Friesland/Groningen, Northern Netherlands, where the Russian military Planes were intercepted by allied Danish F-16 Planes). What role do you see for the expanding Polish army and the newly established civilian Para-military self defense militia?
- Polish embassies are all over the world and so are Polish diplomats. Poland plays a diplomatic role in the world and has a lot of bilateral and multilateral ties. How important is the role of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych) and Polish diplomacy in the world (United Nations), in the EU (in conflicts between EU memberstates), in the Ukraine (in the war between the Ukrainian army and the Eastern-Ukrainian Russian seperatists who are supported by the Russian Federation), in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Poland has good ties with both Israel and Arab countries -including the Palestinian Authority-), in Syria (negotiations between the Syrian government and the insurgents/rebels) and in other conflict areas.
- How do you see the role and position (Geographic location and strategic position) of Poland in Central- and Eastern-Europe?
- How do you see Poland in the slavic world as a whole, as being part of all slavic nations? (Poland next to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia) Is there some Pan-Slavic identity, connection, affiliation, cultural, linguistic, historical, ethnic or political connection or is it that each Slavic people are on their own. Are slavs split in West-Slavs, East-Slavs and Southern-Slavs? Or is the historic division between Roman-Catholic slavic people (Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Croats and Slovenes), and Eastern Christian Orthodox slavic people (Russians, Belarussians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs and Montenegrins)
- What are your hopes, desires, dreams, fears, anxieties, and predictions about the Polish-Russian relations in the near future. What measures, steps, actions should Poland take towards the Russian Federation in the sense of bilateral ties, diplomacy, trade deals, the larger Foreign Affairs image (NATO, UN, EU, Visgrad Group, the Weimar Triangle), Defense, security (safety) policies, legal terms, customs, Polish-Russian joint ventures, Polish Export- and Import to the Russian Federation (Polish farmers, entrepreneurs, business people and companies, and thus also employers and employee's suffer from the sanctions of the West towards Russia, because in counter sanctions from the Russian Federation Polish products are blocked from the Russian market.)
- What are your predictions of the Polish-Ukrainian relations in the near future. (Will Ukainian Nationalism, chauvinism and anti-Polonism harm the relationship in the near future, will celenbrations of Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi Germany -Ukrainian SS, Ukrainian nationalist leaders like Bandera- and the neglect of the heritage of Ukrainian war crimes in Volhynia [Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia] harm Polish-Ukrainian relations? Or will Poles and Ukrainians finally get over their past and move towards new good neighborship, good diplomatic, trade, customs (border control), and financial-economical, cultural, educational (cooperation between Polish and Urkrainian universities, research centers and thus scientists), technological, Industrial, environmental, political [relations between Polish and Ukrainian Social-democrats, Liberals and conservatives] cooperation?)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Lithuania?
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and the Czech Republic?
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Slovakia? (Bonobo, you do not live so far away from the Slovak border. You would probably like to go on vacation to Slovakia like other Poles. Do you know Slovakia, Slovaks and the Policies of the Slovak government? How are the Polish-Slovak relations today?)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Hungary and Slovakia? (Which have been strained in the last decades, due to the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. The Hungarian minority in Romania also has had difficult times.)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Hungary? (Hungary–Poland relations are the foreign relations between Hungary and Poland. Relations between the two states date back to the Middle Ages. The two peoples have traditionally enjoyed a close friendship rooted in a history of shared rulers and faith. Both countries commemorate their fraternal relationship on March 23. Good relations between Poland and Hungary date back to the Middle Ages. The Polish and Hungarian noble houses (as Piast dynasty or House of Árpád) often intermarried with each other; renowned Hungarian King Saint Ladislaus was half Polish). Louis the Great was king of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and king of Poland from 1370 until his death in 1382. He was his father’s heir, Charles I of the House of Anjou-Sicily (King of Hungary and Croatia) and his uncle’s heir, Casimir III the Great (king of Poland - last of the Piast dynasty). King Casimir had no legitimate sons. Apparently, in order to provide a clear line of succession and avoid dynastic uncertainty, he arranged for his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, to be his successor in Poland. Louis' younger daughter Saint Jadwiga of Poland inherited the Polish throne, and became one of the most popular monarchs of Poland. In the 15th century, the two countries briefly shared the same king again, Poland's Władysław III of Varna, who perished, aged barely twenty, fighting the Turks at Varna, Bulgaria. In the 16th century, Poland elected as her king a Hungarian nobleman, Stefan Batory, who is regarded as one of Poland's greatest kings.
Revolution of 1956
A student demonstration in Budapest in support of the Polish October and asking for similar reforms in Hungary was one of the events that sparked the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. During the revolution, Poles demonstrated their support for the Hungarians by donating blood for them; by 12 November 1956, 11,196 Poles had donated. The Polish Red Cross sent 44 tons of medical supplies to Hungary by air; even larger amounts were sent by road and rail.
Friendship Day
On March 12, 2007, Hungary's parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship", with 324 votes in favor, none opposed, and no abstentions. Four days later, the Polish parliament declared March 23 the "Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship" by acclamation.)
Demonstration in Poznan in 1956 in solidarity with the Hungarian uprising in Budapest
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and Germany? (Bonobo, Jeanne - Jeanne, I know you hate politics, but maybe you can reply on the Roman-Catholic subject, because Roman-Catholicism has your particular and special interest!)
- How would you like to see the bilateral ties between Poland and the Netherlands? (In the Hague, the Dutch capital 30,000 Polish people form the Polish community there).
- How are the relations between Poland and other Roman-Catholic countries in Europe and Northern-America (Mexico, USA and Candada)? Is there a connection or does secularisation, Nationalism, and cultural (linguistic, ethnic and political) differences create distances, and in that case does the Roman-Catholic faith not play a role?
Cheers,
Pieter
