The bill on banning the propaganda of “Bandera ideology”, supported by Polish MPs, is dangerous not for Ukraine, but for Poland itself, Head of the Ukrainian National Remembrance Institute Volodymyr Viatrovych has said.
“This is a serious step towards the curtailment of freedom of speech and the introduction of party censorship. Not only Ukrainian authors, but also Polish writers, who wrote about Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA), except its activities are criminal, will fall under the law. The works of Tozhetsky, Kuron, Giedraitis will be censored,” he wrote on Facebook on Friday night.
In view of this Viatrovych noted that democracy is impossible without freedom of speech.
“The experience of our eastern neighbor proved this. I do not want to repeat this lesson,” added the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
According to Polish media, on Friday, January 26, the third reading of the package of bills passed by the Polish Sejm, which provides for changes to the law on the National Memory Institute, took place. There was a bill banning “Bandera ideology” in Poland among them. The majority of parliamentarians voted in affirmative – 279 out of 414. All the deputies of PiS, Kukiz’15 i PSL voted for the draft. The document was supported by several opposition members of parliament.
The adopted law concerns the definition of crimes of Ukrainian nationalists and Ukrainian organizations cooperating with the Third Reich, as well as the possibility of launching, in accordance with Article 55 of the Law on the Institute of National Remembrance, criminal proceedings against persons who deny these crimes.
There is a fine or imprisonment for up to three years for the denial of “Bandera supporters’ crimes.”
