During Panel ‘Society’ at the Conservative-Liberal Congress, organised by the Koliber Association, the president of this organization Norbert Kustusz presented a courageous and provocative opinion: as the nearest to conservative liberalism, the figure of Polish political thought... Roman Dmowski.
The very beginning of the speech foretold a storm:
“I will immediately abandon a name that no 1 would alternatively put on a question like this,” Kustusz started. – "What I will most likely origin outrage of the co-discants as well as people in the audience".
Despite the expected controversy, president Kolibra did not retreat from this declaration. On the contrary – step by step he argued why Roman Dmowski in his opinion best embodies the Polish version of conservative liberalism.
"Roman Dmowski was actually a conservative liberal," Kustusz said. – "All the national-democratic thought, if we go through the past of how their people focused on the National-Democratic organization ... was the only national-liberal or conservative-liberal organization we would call it today".
For Custus, conservative liberalism is more than just opposition to state interference in the economy. In his view, it is simply a doctrine which must besides be rooted in national and spiritual values:
"In my opinion conservative-liberalism should be included not only in the reasoning [...] on State interference in the lives of citizens ... but besides on spiritual issues, national issues, sovereignty issues. In the Polish edition we cannot separate conservative liberalism from this very national identity."
He besides emphasized the unique nature of Polish nationalism:
"Polish nationalism differs from Russian and German nationalism. We have quite a few very circumstantial political thoughts [...] that disagree far from akin examples from the countries of Central and east Europe or Western Europe.”
Kustusz recalled that it was the National-Democratic Party, whose Dmowski was the leading representative, that combined free marketplace and freedom demands with national conservatism:
"Roman Dmowski best placed in his books ... it was this combination of respect for the freedom of the individual, for freedom of religion, for freedom besides for individual and economical purposes".
He besides recalled the work "Rebuilding of the Polish State", stressing that Dmowski had already opposed excessive State interference:
"No circumstantial besides advanced state interference can be abandoned, although we already had very permanent tendencies at European level."
At the end of the speech, Norbert Kustusz recalled that National Democracy was 1 of the first political forces in Poland to support the thought of universal elections – besides for women:
"For example, the National Democratic organization was the biggest supporting issue of free voting, free women's elections – at a time erstwhile no European country has taken this seriously yet".
The speech of Kustusz clearly points to an effort to re-interpret the achievements of Dmowski and national democracy from the point of view of contemporary conservative liberalism. Although his thesis can origin disputes – as he had predicted – surely bring a fresh and unobvious position to the Polish thought debate.
Will conservative-liberal youth accept Dmowski as their patron? The answer to this question may indicate a fresh direction in Polish reasoning about freedom, state and national identity.
The National diary took over media patronage over the event.
