Polish air

From July 1st, for six months, Warsaw will become the capital of the European Union. That doesn’t mean that it will lord it. Rather – most importantly – it will be tasked with setting the schedule of the agenda. A few decades ago, the present capital of the EU was in a sea of rubble. 98% of had been destroyed in World War II. Since then, it was rebuilt and restored, but it still preserves painful memories of its past. In most streets of Warsaw and of other Polish cities monuments and plates stand in remembrance of the victims – whose name is mostly unknown – of the last conflict or of the heroic combatants against the Germans, the Russians, the Turks and the Swedes. Polish people cherish their memories by bringing flowers or lighting commemorative candles and praying. They have learned the priceless value of life, along with the fundamental value of the family, owing to which they passed on their history and their culture across the centuries – reiterated with force by the last – in chronological order -world renowned Polish personalities: Blessed John Paul II.Now that the Poles are at the lead of the EU they will not forget the experience they acquired, nor will there be self-denial. Although they are called to come to terms with more “European” liberalist democracies, their historical “heritage” won’t be erased. They will demand respect, consideration towards the people and the values that ensured their rebirth while holding on to their traditions, which represent the national fabric. They will remember their children’s duty of gratitude to their fathers and ancestors. In a Europe that is experiencing an increasingly weaker bond with its Christian roots, the Polish presidency may at times use harsh, and even barely comprehensible tones. The Countries of Old Europe will have the opportunity to draw positive insights from Poland’s economic growth in a free market of almost 40 million inhabitants, that is surprising in times of crisis, from a Country with its own natural resources and in the positive relations that Poland seeks to preserve with its East-European neighbours, notably with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Perhaps at the end of the Polish presidency the West, which is no longer as wealthy as it was a few years ago, will learn to master its movements from history and memory. It will be aware of the figure of Saint Maximilian Kolbe (who donated his life for the unknown father of a family in the Nazi camp of Auschwitz), without mixing the white eagle of the Poles with the two-headed eagle of the Russian empire, which a national newspaper did in an special op-ed on the EU presidency-in-office. Through modernization Old Europe is called to recover those values that are considered obsolete and which represent a common history and tradition. Let us hope that the Polish presidency will contribute to the achievement of this objective since if should not, Europe will never breathe with its “two lungs”.