Struggle for Silesian Language
The Act providing for the granting of the Silesian language position of regional language was adopted on 9 January by the Sejm. After the legislative work was completed, she went to the Senate, which on 21 January felt that the task did not request to be amended and then forwarded the paper to the signature of president Karol Nawrocki.
According to the Act, the Silesian language was to be added to the Act on National and cultural Minorities as the second regional language alongside Kashubian. The regulations provided, among others, for the anticipation of organising voluntary classes in schools from the Silesian language, introducing bilingual names of the locality where more than 20 percent of the inhabitants usage it, providing financial support for its protection, and ensuring representation of the Silesian language users in the Committee on the Common Government and National and cultural Minorities.
Even before the announcement of the presidential veto, PiS MPs submitted a task in parliament concerning the protection and improvement of the Silesian ethnolect of Polish language. Marek Happy pointed out that regional differentiation is simply a natural component of any national language, and that its dialects, noises and ethnolectes are a evidence to history, migration and social change.
The draft law on the Silesian language, on the another hand, was prepared by the MPs. Monika Rosa stressed that the language and cultural heritage of advanced Silesia had not yet received adequate protection and support, and teaching the Silesian language in schools is crucial to its preservation and maintenance of linguistic diversity.
Opinion of the Council of the Polish Language
During the parliamentary work Prof. Katarzyna Kłosińska pointed out that since 2011 Silesia has developed importantly – it has been better described, literature has been created and more people recognise it as their language. She besides pointed out that erstwhile Kashubian was considered as a regional language in 2005, it was little developed than today's Silesian language, which is why, in her opinion, Silesian should receive this status.
It should be recalled that the draft law on the designation of the Silesian language as regional MPs was re-submitted after the erstwhile version – adopted by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and the legislature of the Republic of Poland in 2024 – vetoed Andrzej Duda. Attempts to introduce specified government have been made respective times since 2007, but have not led to the adoption of the Act.
In the 2021 census, more than 596 1000 people declared a Silesian nationality, and more than 467,000 confirmed the usage of the Silesian language at home.
Kohut talks about spitting in the face
Rybnik's politician Łukasz Kohut from KO estimated that one more time political considerations prevented designation of the Silesian identity and language. As he noted in his comment:
We called on the president to sign the Silesian Language Act. Unfortunately, half a million citizens heard from him: no. Scandal! The president had the chance to make a historical decision and execute a motion of historical justice towards the Silesians who had been harmed and discriminated against for years, especially during the period of communism.
In the remainder of his message Kohut utilized vulgarism characteristic of the Silesian language:
The president spit in the face of hundreds of thousands of Silesians and Slaves. Nawrocki behaved like a average person. We will inactive do our occupation — and our fight for designation of the Silesian language and the Silesian identity continues and continues.
