On 27th April 2012 our firm was honored by the presence of Adam Michnik, a journalist, essayist, writer, historian, political activist, one of the most important figures in contemporary Poland. Editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Wyborcza” gave a lecture on “The opportunities and pitfalls of Polish democracy.”
The main thesis was the great success of Poland after 1989. Adam Michnik described this period as the “best quarter of a century” for our country in the last 400 years, although there were also some difficult moments, such as the governments of Jan Olszewski or Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The author of “Dwie dekady wolności” (“Two decades of freedom”), with his usual eloquence, rich in metaphors – as if from a Czech novel, also analyzed the situation on the contemporary political scene in Poland.
He indicated the friction inside the Church and the dominant role played in it by father Rydzyk’s environment as one of the major social problems.
At the European level, Adam Michnik pointed to strong tension between the trends of integration and disintegration, as well as the general end of the political division into the right and left wings. When discussing the future of democracy, he stressed two contemporary dangers, which he called “putinizm” and “berlusconizm”.
Among the numerous questions asked by the participants, the speaker presented his view on the issue of ‘Jewish Bolshevism’, the pro choice option, and explained his support for the government of Donald Tusk. “This is the homeland we have, he said, and this we will love.”
