Speaker of the Seimas: ‘Rewriting of WWII history is unacceptable’

Press release, 28 January 2020

Photo by Olga Posaškova, Office of the Seimas

On 28 January 2020, in the framework of his official visit to the Republic of Poland, Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, met with Tomasz Grodzki, Marshal of the Polish Senate, and Elżbieta Witek, Marshal of the Polish Sejm.

The meetings focussed on the continuity of the Lithuanian-Polish inter-parliamentary cooperation. The Speaker of the Seimas underlined his expectations for intensified activities of the bilateral parliamentary assembly, which had successfully resumed its work in 2019. According to Mr Pranckietis, the assembly is of particular significance to the sustainability of the bilateral relations.       

Photo by Olga Posaškova, Office of the Seimas

As the meetings between the Speaker of the Seimas and the Marshals of the Polish parliamentary chambers were held in the margins of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Mr Pranckietis stressed his solidarity with Polish leadership’s indignation at Russia’s efforts to rewrite the history of World War II.    

‘In fact, the end of World War II did not bring to the Central and Eastern Europe the liberation that Vladimir Putin recalled once again at the World Holocaust Forum last week. The arrival of the Red Army in Central and Eastern Europe by no means implied restoration of freedom to the nations of the region. Moreover, the Baltic States, for half a century, lost their independence, which they had enjoyed before the War. Therefore, any other interpretation of history is simply unacceptable and wrong,’ the Speaker of the Seimas said after the meetings.      

Paulius Žeimys, Assistant to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6030, e-mail: [email protected]