Poland in the EU

The European Commission has produced a clip for the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism, but it forgot to mention that it all started in Poland.

"Solidarity", Lech Wałęsa and the events of 1989 are completely absent. The rare shots from Poland show general Jaruzelski, who introduced martial law in 1981. The Poles - from ordinary people to the authorities are furious.

I cannot think of a better way of introducing anti-Brussels sentiment in Poland, and just in time for the European Parliament elections. Congratulations, Commission! 

The clip (below) shows events in various countries in 1989: Romania, Lithuania, and of course the fall of the Berlin wall. It does not mention Poland at all.

I guess this reflects the Western European vision of what happned. Many people seem to think the fall of the wall was the first event which launched a series of others in other countries. In fact it was the other way around: it was the Polish Round Table agreemens and first (semi) free elections on June 4 1989 which pushed other nations to break free.

I understand that some common people in other countries might have forgotten about this, but the fact that the Commission propagates these untruths is absolutely scandalous. To boot, the clip uses material from demonstrations in 1993 to illustrate events in 1981. Protesters hold a banner with the name of a paper which did not exist in 1981!

One Pole got so angry that he put on youtube another film to counter the Commission's one. It's in slightly broken English, but all the photos which symbolise the fall of communism to us Poles are there (below).

The Polish ambassador to the EU has today sent a letter of protest to the Commission.

"The fact is that the fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the last accords in the chain of events which took place all over Central and Eastern Europe prior to November 1989, yet still the same year. The pro-democratic movements all over Central and Eastern Europe, the Round Table talks, the elections on June 4^th 1989 in Poland (symbolically almost exactly 20 years before the EP elections ahead of us) followed by the first non-communist government in Poland which ironically hosted the German Chancellor in the very days of the events in Berlin. Without it all the Fall of the Berlin Wall simply would not have happened. And forgetting about it all is like trying to play the ‘Ode to Joy' using only one chord. It simply does not sound like the truth", wrote the ambassador.

If you ask me, the European Commission should appologize and delete this clip from youtube and history as fast as it can.