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Michal Kaminski, chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the European Parliament: "my work combating anti-Semitism alongside the work I have done with the ‘European Friends of Israel’ has been very important to me."
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BRUSSELS (EJP)---In an exclusive interview with EJP, Michal Kaminski, chairman of the new anti-federalist political group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the European Parliament, rejects what he calls "false accusations" of anti-Semitism brought against him by his opponents and acknowledges that some Poles have been involved in the WWII anti-Jewish pogrom of Jedwabne.
But he disputes assumptions that anti-Semitism is an inherent Polish characteristic.
EJP: You have been accused of downplaying the massacre of Jews in Jedwabne in Poland in WWII. Do you still defend this view today?
Michal Kaminski: The pogrom at Jedwabne was a terrible atrocity and the Polish nation will always have to live with the truth of the involvement of some Poles in this crime. It is very important that we acknowledge this.
I am strongly of the view that the violence of Jedwabne should not forever advance incorrect assumptions of Polish co-responsibility for the Holocaust. At the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Israel, there are more non-Jewish Polish citizens honoured for risking their lives to save individual Jews from their darkest hours than any other nation. I believe we in Poland should always be proud of those heroes.
EJP: How do you react to accusations in the UK and from Poland's chief rabbi Michael Schudrich that "you are an anti-Semite" due to your extreme-right background ?
Michal Kaminski: Sadly, my political opponents have thrown every accusation and smear they can think of against me. I will not allow them to paint me as anti-Semitic. I have always sought to highlight the plague of anti-Semitism in Poland, where it exists, through my work in the European Parliament, where I have highlighted it in a plenary debate in December 2004 and was even attacked by the far right in Poland for that remark. I will continue to do this. At the same time I will always dispute the notion that anti-Semitism is an inherent Polish characteristic.
I am sorry that some of our political opponents are using false accusations of anti-Semitism as political weapons. The danger of anti-Semitism is too serious to be misused for partisan attacks.
EJP: What are your relations with the Jewish community?
Michal Kaminski: My work combating anti-Semitism alongside the work I have done with the ‘European Friends of Israel’ has been very important to me.
I have visited Israel numerous times both for leisure, as well as in my capacity of Secretary of State in the Chancellery of Lech Kaczynski, the President of the Republic of Poland.
I am proud to be the leader of the ECR. We are the first and only mainstream group in the European Parliament that stands for a Europe of nation states and free markets - and is against the federal Europe favoured by all of the other major groupings. We now represent a significant and powerful grouping in Brussels.
As a life-long supporter of Israel and a great admirer of the United Kingdom I find these allegations very upsetting. The ECR and I stand by the fact that anti-Semitism and all forms of racism are completely unacceptable.