“The Polish diaspora in America is unique in several dimensions. First, it is very well organized, secondly, it consists of many very active organizations, and thirdly, it is very patriotic, which is shown both in our daily work and in activities for our country” – said “Nowy Dziennik” Piotr Wawrzyk, Secretary of State at Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He added that all of this was very clearly seen and felt at the meetings he participated in last weekend.

Wojtek Maslanka

The Deputy Foreign Minister’s visit to the United States was related to the celebration of May 3 National Constitution Day. As part of it, Piotr Wawrzyk visited Chicago, Doylestown and New York. In the Windy City, on Saturday, May 6, he took part in a Polish community march. A day later, he visited American Częstochowa, where he laid a wreath at the veterans’ funeral, participated in a solemn Holy Mass. and met with Polonia. Also on Sunday, May 7, he visited the Józef Piłsudski Institute in Greenpoint. An intimate meeting was held at its headquarters, during which the foreign minister had the opportunity to meet with representatives of various organizations of the Polish diaspora. Deputy Minister Wawrzyk was accompanied by Sławomir Kowalski, Director of the Department for Cooperation with the Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adrian Kubicki, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York, and his deputy, Stanisław Starnawski. The delegation from Poland had the opportunity to see the collections of the Józef Piłsudski Institute, but also – thanks to meetings with representatives of several Polish organizations – to get acquainted with their activities. It was also an opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the Polish Diaspora in the coming years. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Board of Directors of the Józef Piłsudski Institute: Vice President Dr. Artur Kowalski and Director Alicja Winnicka, and Development Director Ada Niedzwiedzka. Among the invited guests were President of the Polish-Slavic Center Marian Żak, Vice President of the Association of Polonia Football Clubs Wojciech Ziębowicz, Representative of the New York Club “Gazeta Polska” Andrzej Sito with his wife, Executive Director of the Nowodworski Foundation Jerzy Leśniak also represented the Polish Army Veterans Association in America, representatives of the NYPD Pulaski Association Milena and Tymon Meehans, and Executive Director of the Children’s Smile Foundation, Wojciech Maślanka, also represent the editorial staff of “Nowy Dziennik”.

During the meeting, the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs whose responsibilities include looking after consular services and cooperation with the Polish diaspora, thanked the board of the Józef Piłsudski Institute for taking care of the collections and documents containing – as he stated – “the institutional memory of the Second Polish Republic and glorious accomplishments.” “Thank you very much for the daily work you do to foster this memory,” emphasized Piotr Wawrzyk, adding his congratulations on the 80th anniversary of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in America. He also expressed his gratitude to other organizations whose representatives attended the meeting. “Thank you for your daily work to foster Polish memory and history and for your attachment to the values ​​that shape us in Polish culture, language and art. I also want to thank you for what you do every day in the field of promotion and popularization of Polish culture and language, because thanks to this, Polonia works very well in the United States, and thanks to this, New York is one of the most organized and most operational. dynamic” – said the foreign minister.

Since Undersecretary of State Piotr Wawrzyk’s competence, among other things, is dealing with consular services and cooperation with the Polish diaspora, the discussion part of the meeting mainly focused on matters related to this topic. Representatives from the Polish community inquired about the upcoming elections, hinting at issues related to polling stations being set up at centers and groups of residences of Polish citizens, and the issue of needing to have a valid Polish passport in order to be able to vote.

The secretary of state also emphasized that in the upcoming elections it is not only about who wins them, but especially about what the Republic of Poland will be like after the elections – whether it is a country that has lost its subjectivity or it is a country that has lost its subjectivity. own, maintain and develop. He noted that this problem is best demonstrated by the attitude towards Ukraine in recent years. “Please watch how Poland reacted to what happened in Ukraine in 2014. He didn’t really react. And what happened? Ukraine must yield to Russian orders, and not only that. However, in 2022, it is Poland, together with the United States, that sets the tone for world politics,” stressed Piotr Wawrzyk. He added that evidence of the serious treatment of our country by world leaders was the fact that the news that Russia was going to attack Ukraine, America was handed over not to Germany or France, but to Poland and Great Britain. “The US government knows that in Warsaw it can find an ally who will not allow Putin to go any further,” the foreign minister explained. He added that the Russian dictator has plans – as written by the British press – that with the same attitude from Western countries as in 2014 and threats of use of nuclear weapons, he will be able to force NATO to return to its 1997 borders and withdraw. Poland into Russia’s sphere of influence and, consequently, to the situation before 1989. “Thanks to our reaction and cooperation with the United States, this situation has not yet happened, but that does not mean it cannot yet happen,” said Piotr Wawrzyk, stressing that it would depend a lot on on the attitude of our government. By the way, he called for the greatest possible participation in voting and for the creation of a new election commission, so that people who wish to vote do not have to drive for several hours or even fly by plane to the nearest polling place, but have the opportunity to do so relatively close to the place. stay them. This is a task both for the Polish consulate, which is responsible for creating new polling stations, and for the Polish diaspora activists who sit on the election commission.

Consul General Adrian Kubicki who was present at the meeting added that the necessary condition to take part in the elections was to have a valid passport, which is proof that a person is a Polish citizen. Anyway, he encourages people to check and renew their passports. To facilitate the process of extending the validity period and issuing these documents, the Consulate General of New York, which covers a very large area of ​​the United States, began to provide special consular services in cities far from the Big Apple, during which among other things passport matters. Adrian Kubicki ensures that extensive facilitation for applicants is implemented in the facilities he manages to make the process of renewing their passports as easy as possible. “Now you don’t even need to write an application yourself, just present the old passport, on the basis of which our employees make the necessary applications” – said the consul general. He also emphasized that the Indonesian Consulate General in New York issued passports and temporary passports without requiring confirmation of citizenship, even for people whose passports expired 20 years ago. “We apply the law for the maximum benefit for citizens. We allowed the invalidity of Polish passports until 2002, this is the maximum period allowed by the regulations, ”sures Adrian Kubicki. He added that in cases of invalidity of older passports, obtaining a new one involved having to go through a citizenship verification process, significantly extending the current document issuance procedure.