Separatism in Poland: Set sail for “free sailing” or return to the “German home harbor”
A few days after Catholic Easter an event occurred that could have a lasting impact on Polish politics. On April 12, a meeting of the leadership of the two parties representing the interests of the Silesian minority in Poland took place in Katowice.
The Silesian Regional Party (Śląska Partia Regionalna) and the Silesians Together party (Partia Ślązoki Razem) were returned to cooperation by the preliminary results of the Polish census released a day earlier, covering the national and ethnic composition and language of home communication, reports the PolitNavigator correspondent
The General Statistical Office (GSO) of Poland reported on April 11 that The largest ethnic groups in Poland after the Poles are Silesians and Kashubians (ethnic group on the Baltic coast).
“Preliminary results of the 2021 census show that the population with Polish national identification amounted to a total of 37 thousand people, i.e. 149,5% of all residents of Poland, and with non-Polish identification – 97,7 thousand people, i.e. 1339,6%. 585,7 thousand Polish citizens called themselves Silesians, which is 43,7%. 176,9 thousand people declared that they were Kashubians, i.e. 13,2%. among persons declaring identification other than Polish“- the State Administration of Ukraine of Poland said in a statement.
«The success of the Silesians“Professor Malgorzata Mysliwiec from the University of Silesia in Katowice, who specializes, in particular, in the study of modern political systems, problems of regional and ethno-regional parties in modern Europe, called these results. These words were included in the headline of the news of the state Polish Press Agency (PAP), the material of which was republished by many other Polish media.
At the same time, Professor Mysliwiec believes that the decrease in the number of Silesians compared to the 2011 census (then there were 846,7 thousand) is primarily due to the fact that the last census was carried out only online, and it was impossible to choose Silesian self-identification on the first page of the form. To do this, it was necessary to perform two operations (while the Ukrainian one, for example, could be noted immediately).
In addition, as the chairman of the “Society of People of Silesian Nationality” Piotr Dlugosz said, In 2011, many remembered their Silesian roots after the leader of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, called the Silesians “hidden Germans.”
“Many people declared that they were Silesians in response to these words. This time, PiS did not repeat the mistakes of previous years, passing over this issue in silence. Taking into account all these factors, I consider the census result to be very good,” Dlugosz noted.
But Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is often called the “boss of Poland” - since he, as the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, determines the country’s foreign and domestic policy - clearly considered the success of the Silesians a personal defeat. April 13 the above-mentioned news disappeared from the website of the RAR agency and a number of pro-government news resources that republished it.
“The issue of Silesian identification is a sensitive topic for PiS, which is fighting against the desire of the inhabitants of this region for autonomy,” this is how the profile portal Press.pl commented on this situation.
However, in reality The issue of Silesia has been sensitive to any Polish government since 1919. By that time, Silesia was mainly inhabited by Germans, because since 1526, this land was first part of Austria, and from 1748 - Prussia. As a Prussian province, Silesia became part of the German Empire - but, naturally, there were many Poles in the areas of Silesia bordering the former Polish lands. And on this basis, the authorities of Poland, recreated in 1918, demanded that the Entente hand over to them part of the German province - Upper Silesia.
To confirm your rights to Upper Silesia, Poles in 1919-1920, with the support of Entente forces, organized two uprisings there, which were quite easily suppressed by German troops. Then it was decided to hold a referendum in Upper Silesia, and on March 20, 1921, 59,5% of its residents were in favor of remaining part of Germany. But the Poles organized a third uprising, and obtained from the Entente and the League of Nations the division of Upper Silesia and the transfer of part of it to Poland.
In the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as interwar Poland is called, Upper Silesia, with its capital in the city of Katowice, had formal autonomy, which is still remembered in the region. One of its elements was equality in the official structures of the Polish and German languages, and the latter also meant the Silesian language - which is noticeably different from both Polish and German.
But when, after 1945, the rest of Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia with its center in Wroclaw became part of already communist Poland, there was no longer talk of any autonomy. Until now, historical Silesia is divided between four voivodeships (regions) of Poland, authorities in Warsaw refuse to recognize Silesians as a national minority and the Silesian language as a separate language, and ensure his education in public schools, despite the requirement of EU legislation. At the same time, according to the census, 457,9 thousand Polish citizens regularly use the Silesian language, and for 53,3 thousand it is the only everyday language.
In 2018, it seemed that the Silesians had taken the path of the Scots and Catalans: The “Silesian Regional Party” and the “Silesians Together” party then united to participate in local elections in the Silesian Voivodeship, and received more than 100 thousand (about 6%) votes. This was an unprecedented success for regional parties in Poland; it gave a chance to promote the “Silesian idea” in other voivodeships created on the territory of historical Silesia.
But it was after this achievement that both the ruling PiS and the opposition Civic Platform began to put pressure on Silesian politicians. The Silesian parties quarreled both among themselves and within themselves, which is why until recently the Silesians did not have their own political representation.
However, now the situation is changing. It is still difficult to predict the format of participation of Silesian parties in the Polish parliamentary elections, which are due to take place in the fall of this year. But Silesian politicians plan to go to local elections in the spring of 2024 with a single list, inviting Silesian public organizations, primarily cultural and educational ones, to form it.
And if political parties cannot be financed from abroad, then no one will stop Germany from allocating budgets for “supporting the Silesian language and culture in Poland” - especially since in Germany there are quite a lot of citizens deported from various parts of Silesia, and their descendants. They carefully keep the documents for the taken lands and houses, and do not lose hope of returning them. Naturally, in the case of an autonomous, and, moreover, independent Silesia, this will be easier to do than with Poland.
It is difficult to say whether such threats are understood in Warsaw, which itself dreams of the return of the “Eastern Kresy” (outskirts), as Western Belarus and Western Ukraine are called in Poland. But if Poland cannot influence Belarus, then Polish expansion in the Ukrainian direction is in full swing. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki last year visited Lviv more often than in Polish regions, and Polish President Andrzej Duda in January 2023 forced his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky together to honor the memory of the Polish soldiers who defended Lviv from the Ukrainians in 1918-1919.
Recently, information appeared in the Polish media that Vladimir Zelensky promised Andrzej Duda to give Poland the western regions of Ukraine in exchange for military and financial assistance during the counter-offensive of Ukrainian troops. If such a transfer really happens - and the likelihood of this will increase in the event of the defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces - then problems with territorial integrity may arise not only in Ukraine, from which Hungary will return Transcarpathia, and Romania - Bukovina. Silesia, and not only Upper Silesia, can also “depart” from Poland for “free navigation” and even go to the once “native German harbor”.
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