Yesterday, Roberta Metsola met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Karol Nawrocki. Today she talked to the speakers of the Sejm and Senate. She also delivered a speech in the Sejm. She recalled a fragment of a poem by our Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska "A minute of silence after Ludwika Wawrzyńska".
"We know only as much about ourselves as we have been tested." Very few nations have been as tested, as proven, as Poland. However, Poland has always shown and shows what it means to emerge from such a test stronger, fairer and prouder, said the President of the European Parliament.
We know what Europe looks like with and without the European Union. Ultimately, the world with the EU is a better place for all of us, she said, adding: We are not perfect, we must be open to reform, to change. Ultimately, a world with a European Union is a better place for all of us.
Let me say this with all my strength: Europe is not about everyone being the same. It's about valuing our differences, our traditions, our histories, our languages. Our project is not imposed from Brussels. It is to share challenges and common understanding. For us, every member state is a superpower, said Metsola.
She emphasized that those who come from the generation of Polish Pope Karol Wojtyła know that there is no contradiction between being a patriot and being a European.
As children, we watched the fall of the wall, the end of communism and felt the optimism that Solidarity embodied not only for Poles, but for all Europeans. We were guided by the words of the Cardinal from Krakow, who became our Pope, and told us: do not be afraid, emphasized Metsola.
During Metsola's speech, some PiS parliamentarians held banners with the inscription in English: "a coup d'état initiated by Donald Tusk is underway in Poland." There was also a banner with the inscription "Tusk=dictator" and a photo showing the police in front of the Constitutional Tribunal.
"Europe hears Poland's voice regarding the threat from the East"
The head of the European Parliament also said that Europe hears Poland's voice regarding the threat from the East and thanked her for her defense activities. She added that Poland had been warning the European Union about Russia for years. Europe should have heard you sooner, she said.
Marshal of the Sejm Włodzimierz Czarzasty announced that he had invited Roberta Metsola to the conference of heads of parliaments of EU and NATO countries, which will be held in Warsaw next year and will be devoted to European security.
This will be a big event and will be of great importance for the security of NATO's eastern flank and the European Union - emphasized Marshal Czarzasty.
He added that they also talked with the head of the European Parliament about the issue of the European Order of Merit, and the Polish side nominated former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski to be awarded this order next year. The conversation also concerned - as Czarzasty informed - EU enlargement, including the issue of Ukraine's accession to the EU - "sooner or later, after all conditions are met, after also securing the interests of, among others, Poland." In this context, he also said that they both believe that "there is no safe Poland, no safe European Union without a free, independent Ukraine."
The discussion also concerned the next multi-annual EU budget.
Of course, as is normal, we are striving for Poland's interests. This is obvious to the President: we Poles care mainly about Poland's interests, because we know that if Poland is strong, the European Union will also be strong, and this is how we understand it - emphasized the Speaker of the Sejm.
"Poland will soon take its rightful place at the G20 table"
Since joining the European Union, Poland has been among the 20 largest economies in the world, and will soon take its rightful place at the G20 table (...). Currently, it is Poland that is pushing the whole of Europe forward, the President of the European Parliament emphasized in the Sejm.
As she noted, all this was achieved through "hard work by millions of Poles."
Poles who got up early in the morning, started companies, and went to other European countries to study. They returned home to build and refused to accept that their children had less than anyone else in Europe. And Europe was proud to be part of this quadruple, she added.
