{"id":10616,"date":"2013-09-25T10:41:47","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T10:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=10616"},"modified":"2013-09-25T10:42:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T10:42:06","slug":"former-polish-president-talks-anschluss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=10616","title":{"rendered":"Former Polish president talks Anschluss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lech<\/a>
Lech Walesa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president, whose Solidarity trade union played a key role in bringing an end to the Cold War, said the world had changed and needed new ways of organising itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to expand economic and defence co-operation and other structures to create one state from Poland and Germany in Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Russia\u2019s Itar-Tass news agency, Lech Walesa, 69, said national boundaries were not as relevant as they once were.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have travelled so far in our technical advancements that we are no longer located in our own countries,\u201d he said, adding that this required changes to geographical structures, the economy and democracy.<\/p>\n

Although few Poles have forgotten Germany\u2019s invasion and brutal occupation of Poland in 1939, history should not be an obstacle to unity, Walesa said. \u201cAfter the war, Germany fully confessed to all its dirty tricks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s necessary to is draw a line under the past, even if people did something evil. Until we do, wounds won\u2019t heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walesa\u2019s calls for Polish-German unity exceed his previous support for closer European solidarity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment different ways of doing things and different systems hold us back but gradually everything will align and states will become like Lego blocks,\u201d he said in the Itar-Tass interview.<\/p>\n

He suggested that current international systems were now defunct, saying the United Nations and NATO were the \u201cideas of an old era\u201d and \u201cbadly organised\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments on German-Polish unification will further enhance the former Polish president\u2019s reputation for making frank and sometimes unorthodox remarks.<\/p>\n

While Walesa said Poland could bury the hatchet with Germany, the situation was different with Russia, the other great historical foe of the Poles. He urged Moscow to follow the German example and atone for its sins committed against Poland in order to lay the foundations of a good relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are too slow in solving our problems and reaching an understanding,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must aim to make our relations as smooth as possible, since we are fated to be neighbours.\u201d – The Telegraph<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president, whose Solidarity trade union played a key role in bringing an end to the Cold War, said the world had changed and needed new ways of organising itself. \u201cWe need to expand economic and defence co-operation and other structures to create one state from Poland and … Continue reading “Former Polish president talks Anschluss”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[5237,6470,2598,2602,6471,66,6469],"class_list":["post-10616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-cold-war","tag-former-polish-president","tag-lech-walesa","tag-nobel-peace-prize-winner","tag-poland-and-germany","tag-russia","tag-solidarity-trade-union"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/lechwalesa.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10619,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10616\/revisions\/10619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}