A demarche against the intensification of anti-communism in Poland took place yesterday at the Polish Embassy in Athens by a KKE delegation, headed by Kostas Papadakis, CC member and MEP of the Party. The protest took place within the framework of the international campaign organized by Communist Parties to denounce the new anti-communist campaign and the criminalization of communist ideas in the country, this time on occasion of the changes to the Penal Code.

The most characteristic instance is the amendment to Article 256 that forbids communist ideology and proceeds to the reprehensible equating of communism with fascism, making use of the falsified term "totalitarianism". Additionally, it forbids communist ideology, symbols and other materials (publications, broadcasts) and the possession of symbols and other such materials, increasing the penalties for those who do not enforce the code, up to 3 years of imprisonment.

The KKE delegation that met with Jolanta Wójcik-Niedzielska, political adviser and embassy spokesperson, condemned the new unacceptable persecutions against the CP Poland, persecutions that began more systematically a decade ago when once again they had attempted to ban communist symbols through the law. However, in 2011, following domestic and international reactions, the prohibition was abolished by the Constitutional Court.

Additionally, K. Papadakis reminded us that last February following 3.5 years of trial, the indictment collapsed against leaders and members of the CP Poland and its newspaper, "Brzask". Finally, he stressed that the KKE and other CPs will continue their struggle against the anti-communist campaign in Poland, against the counterfeiting of History. They will express their solidarity towards the Polish communists demanding that the persecution against them cease immediately.

The embassy spokesman merely remarked that anti-communism and the amendments to the Penal Code are based on Article 13 of the Constitution which concerns "combating totalitarianism". Of course, this unacceptable equation of fascism that is born and bred of capitalism itself, with socialism – communism and the USSR, the first workers' state that contributed decisively to the destruction of the fascist monster, is the main direction of the EU that is attempting in vain to extinguish from the people's memories the enormous contribution socialist construction made to the 20th century.

11.06.2019