Polish President: opening of the canal through the Vistula Spit is a great victory for Poland
The opening of the canal through the Vistula Spit is a great victory for Poland, for patriots, and for all those who understand the word sovereignty and understand the meaning of sovereignty, President Andrzej Duda said at Saturday’s ceremony to officially open the shipping canal.
“I want to announce that despite the difficult position of the Republic of Poland, geopolitically in this part of Europe for more than a millennium, despite the winds of wars that have pinned us very often to the ground, despite the millions of losses in our nation, despite the personal tragedies experienced by Polish families, generations, despite all adversities, despite the difficult times, despite the years of communism; despite everything that has happened also in the last 30 years Poland is victorious. It is winning today here on the Vistula Spit,” President Andrzej Duda declared.
He added that “the opening of this investment, its completion, launching and handing over for use; of this water route, which will allow free passage between the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Gdansk and the Vistula Lagoon, Elbląg, Tolkmicko, is a great victory for Poland, a great victory for patriots, it is a great victory for all those who understand the word sovereignty and understand the meaning of sovereignty, both internal and external – the interstate.”
As the president pointed out, any great investment comes with this – especially in our location and in our geopolitical and historical circumstances, that “such an investment is always under attack”. “I will not judge those who attack this investment. There are various reasons, but many of them are also reasons lined with great evil, from our point of view, and we all know this perfectly well, therefore the fact that the investment is being realised is a great victory – a great victory in spite of the very often great interests, including strategic interests, and the huge money that therefore supports these interests,” – Andrzej Duda said.
“Every great investment is associated with the fact that it is under attack; the reasons are various, but many of them, are also reasons lined with great evil,” – said President Andrzej Duda during the ceremony of the opening of the navigation channel through the Vistula Spit.
As President Duda stressed, “a state that understands its potential, its history and its importance cannot afford to be a dependent state, cannot afford to have someone else decide its important, strategic matters”. “This has been the case throughout this enormously difficult period since 1945 when it was impossible to influence the Vistula Lagoon here without de facto Russian consent,” – he said.
“We all know how many problems, difficulties, very often artificially created only to make this communication impossible, to prevent the proper functioning of Polish centres located on the Vistula Lagoon, such as Elbląg, where the port of Elbląg de facto fell into oblivion because of all these problems, which were piled up for years and made normal navigation impossible”. – emphasised the President.
Duda recalled that the issue of the diversion had been discussed by Law and Justice president Jarosław Kaczyński, especially during his time as prime minister in 2006-2007. “It was not possible to realise this investment then. The time was too short and the investment intention was huge,” he said. “The renewed victory in 2015 made it possible to realise this great idea and the preparation of the process was started basically immediately,” – He added and recalled the successive stages of the investment and pointed out that it would be completed in 2023.
“This most important element, which is the canal enabling the passage through the area of the Vistula Spit, is ready, it is prepared, it is modern, it is equipped and it already enables navigational activities in this area and this is a great victory”. – emphasised the President. “I firmly believe that after this investment, which is being commissioned today, there will be others – the tunnel in Świnoujście, which we are building, or the Central Communication Port and all the investments related to it,” – President Andrzej Duda said at the opening of the navigation channel through the Vistula Spit.
“It is not a question of whether the largest ships will be able to pass here; for receiving goods from the largest ships, we have other ports; for loading the largest ships, we have other places on the coast of the Republic. The idea was to keep this road symbolically open, so that we would not have to ask permission from a country that is not friendly to us, a country whose authorities do not hesitate to attack and enslave others,” – Duda said during the speech.
Source: PortalMorski
