‘Only culture can save us’
Purges and Paranoia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Paweł Potoroczyn used to be Director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, but was stripped of the post without being told why. Potoroczyn is taking legal action against his dismissal, and in this interview, he laments the legal nihilism that lies at the heart of his removal from office. In his view, his dismissal is a part of a programme to replace the elite that has been systematically pursued by the Law and Justice party (PiS) since 2015. He is disconcerted by the government’s instrumental concept of culture, the purges being conducted in the cultural field, and by the attempt to define what the real national culture is. However, there are no grounds for pessimism. To date, all attempts to destroy culture have failed – by foreign and domestic occupying forces alike.
(Osteuropa 3-5/2018, pp. 297–302)