Radoslaw Sikorski on 'Polska: Spring Into' campaign

Radosław Sikorski: photo - W. Kusiński/PR

The 'spring' in the title of the campaign Polska: Spring Into comes from “Poland acting like a spring for ideas” the foreign minister says, and the campaign, launched in the UK this week, “aims to show that Poland has completed its period of transformation after 25 years of freedom”.

“I am glad [the campaign] has intrigued people,” Radoslaw Sikorski says.

On his memories of hearing about the landslide victory by Solidarity candidates in the historic June 1989 elections, which brought an end to the communist regime in Poland 25 years ago next month, Minister Sikorski says he remembers vividly listening to BBC World Service radio in Angola, where he was working as a war reporter.

“I woke up in the bush, set my radio to shortwave. Reception was not too good but I picked up the end of a news bulletin with three news items – Tienanmen Square, the death of Ayatollah Khomeini and Solidarity’s victory."

Mr Sikorski then entered government as deputy defence minister in one of the first democratically elected governments following the fall of communism.

“People said I became deputy defence minister before entering puberty,” he says, with a smile, on his early entry into politics. (pg)

Radoslaw Sikorski was talking to reporter Michal Kubicki.