Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 2, Autumn 2019 | Page 28

AIA INTERVIEW WITH RAFAŁ DUTKIEWICZ,
MAYOR OF WROCLAW (2002–2018)
freedom of participation in culture are infringed upon, we are going to protest. Everyone
who infringes upon the aforementioned freedom of access to culture will ultimately fail
and be punished. History has proven it already. Such a person or group can, however,
cause a lot of harm and damage.
8. Where do you see Wroclaw and Poland in 10 years?
I am not going to answer this question like a politician. I will answer with my dreams and
desires instead. So, it may be somewhat wishful thinking, maybe a little utopian. First of
all, I want to see Poland in the European Union, hoping for a deeper integration process.
I also hope that the wave of populism and nationalism flooding the old continent over
will dissipate. Nationalism is a terrible thing�it is the stinking, rancid sweat of society.
Something that we should wash away and get rid of.
Here, I would like to point out that by attacking nationalism, I am not trying to stand in
opposition against nations. The power of the associations of national ideas is so significant
in human history that even left-wing philosophers such as Habermas inclined to say
that if nation states had not emerged, they would have had to have been invented. However,
the community is constantly becoming more and more widespread. The nation is
but a community stage in the development of humankind and humanity. The national
needs the international, a nation can fulfil its contemporary and future role only in a
supranational setting�in our case, within the framework of the European Community.
At the beginning of the 1980s, martial law was introduced in Poland. I was devastated.
One of my friends, the extremely wise Professor Stomma, told me then that what we
were witnessing were the “birth pangs of the new Europe.” He was right. I have a feeling
that today we are experiencing something similar, the birth pangs of a new reality.
Whatever is born out of them, however, should be healthy. This is our task, our mission.
We should make every effort to make the nationalist and populist sentiments ravaging
our continent a thing of the past. We generally grow up in our families, as well as in various
communities. Among them, the national community holds particular importance.
The national, however, must be perceived from a broader perspective, as something that
serves us, something that serves all the people.
Secondly, I hope that we can restore the rule of law in Poland, as well as reinforce other
elements of liberal democracy. Thirdly�and finally�I hope that the cities of the future
will be places where culture meets nature. If we really make an effort, we can make our
environment greener and bluer. We need to clean our air and water, while cities need to
be freed from excessive noise. Poland and Wroclaw may find themselves in the world
avant-garde of urban thinking about ecological problems, as well as solidary, European
and global opposition to climate change.
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