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I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy.

So I think that I can say, as the President of Poland, we're proud that I am coming from Poland, which is different and what's more important, much better than before.

We all live in a free Poland, and there would be no free Poland without you, Twenty-five years ago, I did not stand on the same side together with you, but today I have no doubts that it was your vision of Poland which led us in the right direction.

I belong to a nation which over the past centuries has experienced many hardships and reverses. The world reacted with silence or with mere sympathy when Polish frontiers were crossed by invading armies and the sovereign state had to succumb to brutal force.

It's wonderful that Poland is free again and there's open debate and people can pursue their interests. I'm all for it.

I always needle a bit when people say I'm a champion of the Poles, because I've always had a very multinational view of Poland.

Poland is a wildly dramatic and tragic story. It's just unbelievable what went on with those people. How they survive, I don't really know. The Germans had a particular hatred for the Poles; they really considered them subhuman Slavs, and they were very brutal to them.

Poland was the racial laboratory of the Nazis. This is where they started to put their abhorrent theories into practice.

The Holocaust committed by the Nazis turned this country, where most of the European Jews used to live and where their culture used to flourish, into a massive grave. This is why initiatives to revive Jewish culture in Poland is so important.

Concerning Poland, I can only say that the peoples of Central Europe and Hungary are a community in fate, to the death. Many of us would spill our blood for Poland any time. And vice versa: in an emergency, many Polish people would give his life to protect Hungarians. This has happened more than once over the course of history.