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The conversation took place on the occasion of granting the annual Person of Freedom award by the pro-government weekly "Sieci". This year's winner was PKN Orlen CEO Daniel Obajtek.
At the beginning of December, Orlen - the state-owned oil giant - announced that it was taking over Polska Press from the German Verlagsgruppe Passau Capital Group. It is one of the largest publishers in Poland. Polska Press group includes, among others, 20 of the 24 regional dailies in Poland, as well as weeklies and online services who reach more than 17 million users.
During the interview, Kaczyński heaped praise on Obajtek. - He has already done a lot for Poland and I am convinced that he will do much, much more, because he has great potential, extraordinary determination and that God-given quality that is hard to define. This aura which he creates around himself, which allows him to mobilize people, to unite people around a shared goal. Without this particular feature great undertakings are impossible. He has this ability. It is very important indeed', the Chairman of the Law and Justice opined.
According to Kaczyński, the purchase of Polska Press by Orlen is one of the "best news" he has heard in the past few years. - Because it is the first step in a new direction. We have largely deprived ourselves of the media in favor of non-Polish factors, mainly German, with great loss to our sovereignty. Not only as a state, but as a nation, leading to incalculable losses in many areas.
The Chairman of the Law and Justice party stated that 'the media which were taken over by the Germans played a huge role in demoralizing the youth already since the 1990s'. Demoralizing - as he stated - in the most vulgar, primitive way. - It was shocking, but it went on unabated. If we continue on this new path, which was started thanks to the decisions of Obajtek, we will move towards rectifying this situation," he added.
Kaczyński went on to say that the CEO of Orlen offers "hope". - I do not mean by that a hope for our political camp, nor for any particular group, but simply for Poland. All Poles who simply want the good of our nation, who want to live in a strong, important and continuously improving country and who simply want success, should see Obajtek's action as bringing hope. Because his decision to take over Polska Press is the success of the company he leads, but also the success of Poland, the success of all Poles and a model for others to repeat these successes on a different scale," he said. He added that historians "will very often mention Obajtek's name as one of the most important names of our era, an era that I hope will last as long as possible".
According to Kaczyński, Obajtek is "a completely extraordinary person" in terms of his organizational talent. The Law and Justice chairman went on to say that Obajtek "is a very distinctive figure. - I don't want to use the term "star" here, because it might not be the best term in this context, but he is really an exceptional man - he pointed out.
Kaczyński also said that, both in Poland and abroad, "there are many examples of attempts at limiting freedom". - There are all kinds of actions, which aim to prevent people who hold conservative views, as this is currently the case in the world, from expressing themselves safely, and which bring negative consequences," he said.
In his opinion, there is a "virtually undisguised tendency" in the world to "not only limit freedom, but simply abolish it.
- The terms used here by opponents, enemies of freedom - this is how it should be defined - are usually misleading. This is an example of deliberate use of social engineering. Here, "hate speech" is at the forefront of these terms, with "tolerance" a close second. The latter word is used in such a way that it completely reverses the original and proper meaning of this word. In many places it has become not only a social norm, but it has also been included in legal norms of a repressive nature and these repressions have already been applied," he noted. He added that Poland remains "a kind of oasis of freedom" in Europe and in the world.
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