President Kwasniewski celebrates summit and looks ahead to referendum

President Kwasniewski believes that optimism can do great things, even achieve improbable goals. This was how he viewed the results of the Copenhagen summit. "This is definitely a success for us. The fact that we acted openly, forced us to make big efforts until the very end. We cannot disregard the role of the opposition. In democratic countries, those in power must be controlled. Otherwise they lose their common sense," he told Gazeta Wyborcza. He stressed that all the previous governments since 1989 have contributed to the position Poland now has in Europe. In an attempt to calm down euro-skeptics he said that entering the EU would not be in contradiction with the national heritage. He also expressed his strong faith in a positive result during next year's accession referendum, and promised to play a larger role to encourage a "yes" vote. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Dec. 14-15, p. 6) K.Z.