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Polish president endorses amendments to de-communization law

The amended law states that monuments and other similar objects "cannot pay tribute to individuals, organizations, events or dates that symbolize Communism or any other totalitarian regime"

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. Polish President Andrzej Duda approved on Monday the amendments to the law banning the propaganda of Communism or any other totalitarian regime in the names of buildings and facilities that envisage the demolition of Soviet-era monuments, including those dedicated to the Red Army, the Polish president’s website reported.

Poland’s Sejm (lower house of parliament) passed the amendments on June 22.

The amended law states that monuments and other similar objects "cannot pay tribute to individuals, organizations, events or dates that symbolize Communism or any other totalitarian regime." These do not include monuments located in cemeteries or other burial sites, monuments which are not publicly displayed or displayed for scientific purposes, as works of art along with those added to the register of architectural monuments.

Lawmakers suggest that the monuments that do not belong to these groups should be dismantled within 12 months after the amendments come into force. Experts say there are at least 469 such monuments throughout the country, about 250 of them are dedicated to the Red Army.

The decision on whether a certain monument meets the criteria described in the amendments will be made by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, which earlier was the first to come up with the initiative to take down all Soviet-era monuments in the country. The institute’s position can be contested in the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

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