On Sunday, 9 June, elections to the European Parliament were held in the European Union. In Lithuania, the only Polish parliamentary party outside Poland, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance, was a great success. It won 5.78 per cent of votes nationwide, winning decisively in the Šalčininkai (84.71 per cent), Vilnius (41.38 per cent), Visaginas (22.42 per cent) and Trakai (19.39 per cent) districts. On the other hand, in the Švenčionys district, it obtained the second result (15.72 per cent). Read more

Just after the new year, Lithuanian nationalists launched a new campaign against national minority schools. This time against schools with Russian teaching language. Quite recently, an attack was carried out on the Polish Primary School of Andžej Stelmachovski in Senieji Trakai and on Polish Gymnasium of Longin Komolovski in Paluknys in Trakai district. It happened despite the fact that yet in 2000 Lithuania has signed and ratified without exceptions the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Rights of National Minorities, which guarantees autochthonous national minorities, among other things, the right to their national schools. Read more

The protection of the rights of traditional national minorities in the European Union will be discussed at the coming sessions of the European Parliament. The draft resolution will be submitted by the Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages in the European Parliament. The last meeting of the Intergroup in Strasbourg (24th November) was devoted to the topic of discrimination against Polish education in Lithuania. Read more

An attack on Polish schools in the Vilnius Region has started this year. Last March, the local government of the Trakai District decided to ‘reorganize’, or rather degrade two Polish schools. Actions, that were unfavourable to Polishness and were aimed at limiting education of centuries-old traditions, started intensifying. The existence of schools is threatened mainly in the Trakai District, but the situation in the Šalčininkai District is also bad, as it is threatened by the Lithuanian government with financial restrictions simply for maintaining Polish schools. Read more

In connection to the unprecedented attack against Polish schools in Lithuania by the current liberal-nationalist authorities of Lithuania, the aim of which is to liquidate or downgrade to a lower level several Polish schools in the Vilnius, Šalčininkai and Trakai districts (including 8 gymnasia, i.e. Šv. Kazimiero in Medininkai, Tadeušo Konvickio in Buivydžiai, Šv. Jono Bosko in Egliškės, Šv. Uršulės Leduchovskos in Juodašiliai, Povilo Ksavero Bžostovskio in Turgeliai, Adomo Mickevičiaus in Dieveniškės, Anos Krepštul in Butrimonys, and Longin Komolovski in Paluknys), the school communities of the Vilnius Region are organizing a protest action and preparing an appeal of support for the preservation of Polish schools. The event will take place in front of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Vilnius. Read more