We are responding to the hate campaign unleashed online by nationalists of every kind. Prosecutors are investigating the hateful posts, while the Minister of Justice and the Commissioner for Human Rights are planning how to counter hate speech, which is becoming a serious problem in Poland.

During the presentation of the literary award, Olga Tokarczuk said: “We invented the history of Poland as a tolerant, open country, as a country that had not stained itself with anything bad in relation to its minorities. Meanwhile, we did terrible things as colonizers, as the national majority that suppressed the minority, as slave owners or murderers of Jews.”

The Istotne.pl editorial team endorses the appeal by Jacek Głomb, president of the “Naprawiacze Świata” Foundation, expressing solidarity with Olga Tokarczuk.

Dear Ms Olga, what is happening around your comments on TVP after receiving the Nike Literary Award for “The Books of Jacob” is beyond belief. Online, we read “Jewish rag,” “Ukrainian wh…,” and you are being threatened with death!

We met in Legnica for a different reason, to talk about civic Poland, but we want to express our solidarity with you. There can be no consent to hate directed at someone who writes and says important things and is one of us, the residents of Lower Silesia. There can be no consent to hate directed at someone who shapes the identity of Lower Silesia.

There can be no consent to hate speech and hostility. Those who use it do not do so on behalf of everyone. They roar, but they are not the majority.

We appeal to all residents of Lower Silesia—including people from nongovernmental organizations and the cultural sector—and to politicians: members of the Sejm and senators, councilors of all local governments, commune heads, mayors, city presidents, and the Marshal of Lower Silesia, to support our appeal or create their own. The time to do so is now.
There can be no consent to such a world.
Yours sincerely,
Józef Pinior
Jacek Głomb
Joanna Michalak
Maciej Kupaj
Grzegorz Żurawiński
Olgierd Łańcucki
Krystyna Czarna
Henryk Szydłowski
Ryszard Morawski
Lech Halicki
Monika Szpatowicz
Zbigniew Kraska
Robert Kropiwnicki