The good news from this letter is that its authors are no longer ambassadors and do not represent Poland on the international stage

— says Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk, Secretary of State for Polish Diaspora, European Policy and Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with the portal wPolityce.pl.

wPolityce.pl: „Mr. President, you are coming to a country where the rule of law is no longer respected” – reads an open letter to Donald Trump written by the former Polish ambassadors united in the Conference of Polish Ambassadors. What is your assessment of this rather desperate letter from former ambassadors to President Donald Trump? How would you rate such practices?

Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk: The good news regarding this letter is that its authors are no longer ambassadors and no longer represent Poland on the international stage, because the fact that they are using the important, historical and at the same time tragic for Poland anniversary of the outbreak of World War II to make accusations on the international stage and to tell untruth and harmful things about Poland is the best proof that not only they should not have served as ambassadors and representatives of our country abroad in the past, but also they shouldn’t be carrying out this duty at all.

However, they did perform these functions and represented our country. How does this relate to diplomatic protocol and ethics?

Diplomatic protocol governs the principles of diplomacy. These are former diplomats, but if they still feel, as the context of this letter would suggest, responsible for Poland’s position on the international stage they should not weaken nor harm Poland. Nevertheless, they are doing so and it is not so much a violation of the diplomatic protocol as simply taking off a certain curtain and showing that these people are closer to politicians and the electoral rally of the opposition than to diplomacy.

But the question remains, whether they are really close to politics in such a real sense, because even for a politician this is bizarre behaviour.

It is now difficult for me to explain behaviour which I do not fully understand. I cannot see them in any other way than through the prism of some political intentions on the one hand and the frustration connected with the fact that they do not have any influence on Poland’s actions on the international scene on the other hand. That’s my explanation.

Tłum. K.J.