Speaker of the Senate of France Gérard Larcher: Distinguished

Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 1 Speaker of the Senate of France Gérard Larcher: Distinguished Marshal of the Senate! Distinguished Marshal of the Sejm! Honourable Vice-Marshals of the Sejm and Deputy Marshals of the Senate! Dear Senators, Members of Parliament! Ladies and Gentlemen! It is an immense honour for me to speak on behalf of the Senate of the French Republic before you – the representatives of the Polish Nation. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr Stanisław Karczewski, the Marshal of the Senate, and to the Senate of the Republic of Poland for the invitation, for the magnificent welcome and for the perfect organisation of this visit, thanks to which I can meet the most prominent figures of the Polish political life. Also the Senators accompanying me during this visit: Chairman of the Committee for the European Affairs of the Senate Mr Jean Bizet, Chairman of the France-Poland Interparliamentary Friendship Group Mr Jean-Pierre Leleux, and Deputy Chairman of this Group, Ms Maryvonne Blondin, express their own thanks. I also welcome Mr Ambassador, who is the permanent representative of our country here in Warsaw. As you well know, my Dear Colleagues, France and Poland have had a long history of earnest friendship, forged in the brotherhood of arms. This year, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War as well as of regaining of independence by Poland after 123 years of partitions. Therefore, I would like to pay homage to the Polish Nation and its unbreakable struggle for independence, identity, and sovereignty. Since I am a Gaullist, I can say that to me these three words: “independence”, “identity”, and “sovereignty” have a very special meaning. I keep in mind the sacrifice of many thousands of Polish soldiers, made during the First and the Second World War, or those who fell in the heroic combat on the French soil and on all battlegrounds, from Narvik to Monte Cassino, each time standing on the side of freedom. This morning, together we have paid tribute to their memory before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a living memory – a memory of yesterday's sacrifice which gave us freedom of today and of the future. I know how much Poland suffered as a result of the conspiracy between two Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 2 murderous totalitarianisms of the 20th century, Nazism and Communism. Your country was divided into quarters, your elites were slaughtered, and your Nation was starved – and this was done by these two regimes. When in the spring of 1940 Stalin gave the order to murder Polish officers in the forest of Katyn, the Nazi did quite the same, assassinating people not so far away from here, in the Kampinos Forest, in the Warsaw suburbs. We are aware of how unimaginably cruel the German occupation was for your Nation. Poland’s suffering is not to be compared with anything else, any history of any other country – and from that stems a certain obligation towards Poland and the Poles. We should not forget, Dear Colleagues, that in September of 1944, after the call for uprising here, in Warsaw, the Red Army was waiting with their arms down on the other bank of the Vistula River, allowing the German forces to turn the whole city into debris, despite the heroism and courage of the soldiers of the Home Army and of all citizens of the Capital City. But at the same time those most fearless whom our continent, Europe, owes its freedom, originated from the Polish Nation. Since I cannot name all of them, while paying my homage, I will only say about the Polish engineers who were the first to break the code of the Enigma, used to convey strategic information. In that way, they made an unprecedented contribution to the war efforts and fight against Nazism. I would also like to pay tribute to Polish pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, and to numerous Poles fighting in the French resistance, members of the Polish-French intelligence organisation F2, and soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division who fell liberating my country and my home region of Normandy. It was the case in the Battle of Hill 262 and when Polish soldiers managed to close the Falaise Pocket. This morning, when I was laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I saw an inscription, “Chambois”. Chambois is a village close to my home, where as a child I used to go with my class to lay flowers. And I have to confess that I felt true and complete unity with the sacrifice of these Poles who had given their life for France and its freedom. I also retain in my memory the genocide against the Jewish community in Poland, one of the most numerous in Europe, that was committed in the Nazi Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 3 death camps. I further remember the heroic uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. I particularly wanted to pay homage to its heroes during my visit. The memory of the unprecedented genocide should be by all means preserved – it means conscience and remembrance oriented towards the challenges of the today's world. And it was one of you, Jan Karski, a man whose fate was extraordinary, who was the first to raise the alarm and inform the world public opinion about this crime. But unfortunately for the world, he had not been heard. Also, it is not a coincidence that Poles are the most numerous group of the Righteous Among the Nations – there are exactly 6,352 of them. Their names are written down in the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and their memory bears a message. I do not forget the exemplary fight of the Polish Nation with the communist dictatorship or the key role played by Pope John Paul II and the trade union “Solidarity” in bringing down the Iron Curtain. Thanks to the strength of convictions and fortitude of these people, communism was defeated. The Poles, confronted for the long five decades with the deadly ideology, had never ever resigned. They had never ever sought a poor compromise. And had never ever given up – they have always remain faithful to their commitment to freedom, independence, and sovereignty of their country. Today, our countries maintain intense relationships in the field of politics, economy, culture, language, and parliamentary cooperation. There are more than 1,300 French enterprises in Poland, which employ nearly 250 thousand Poles; 280 thousand Polish students learn French, and Poland is an Observer of the International Organisation of la Francophonie. Yesterday, I met with the representatives of local French enterprises and I realised – which is not common during my trips – that they think of Poland's future with optimism and hope. I believe that our cooperation in multiple fields such as nuclear research, artificial intelligence, language and culture, military affairs and arms, could be even strengthened. After regaining its independence in 1989, joining the NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, Poland once again returned to where it belongs – the heart of Europe. Let me invoke Czesław Miłosz here: the enlargement with Fifty sixth meeting of the Senate (d. 1) 4 the so-called second Europe, with “a kidnapped West”, as Milan Kundera put it, was a historical necessity. This allowed a reunification of the continent and a return to the true Europe. Europe cannot be a Europe without Poland to the same extent as it cannot be a Europe without France or Germany. Poland can only be an important player and entity within Europe. This is what I wanted to say to you today from this place, among other things. Europe cannot be a sum of concentric circles. For me, there is only one Europe! There are no different categories of Member States. Undoubtedly, Mr Marshal, France and Poland are, along with Germany, strategic partners in the European Union. Despite the crises – and there has been a lot of them – the European Union has always managed to recover. Nowadays, as the UK has decided to leave the European Union, bringing Europe closer to its citizens, just as we have just discussed it, Mr Marshal, should be our priority. Europe must react and must regain its momentum. This new dynamics should, in my opinion, focus on specific initiatives. I believe that our citizens wish for a Europe that protects them. As for the geopolitical context, which has become increasingly uncertain and unpredictable, we must make further progress in foreign policy and defence to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy. Taking into account the uncertainty related to our American ally – that still remains our ally and friend, because we will never forget what we, and in particular I as a representative of my home land of Normandy, owe to the Americans – and taking into account the questions asked in relation to Russia’s rearmament, Europeans should take matters into their own hands to a larger extent and develop an increasingly common foreign policy based on European, autonomous and credible defence, which will supplement NATO. At the same time, France and Poland should play a leading role in that respect. In the face of terrorist threat and the problem of crime, it is necessary to develop police and judicial cooperation. How can we explain that it took 5 years for the EU to adopt the European PNR system, the famous passenger name record, when several European countries, France included, suffered as a result of fatal terrorist attacks? Such delays have serious consequences for the security of our countries and the public's opinion on the European Union.

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