Andrzej Duda became the first sitting Polish president to take part in the event, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
Dozens of Polish American organisations, groups and march orchestras proceeded down New York’s Fifth Avenue in Manhattan under this year’s motto “Celebrating Poland and America defending freedom.”
Among them were Polish American motorcycle clubs, students of Polish schools in the United States, folk dance ensembles, as well as local and Polish officials, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, border guards, Polish and Polish American companies and media outlets.
Many of these groups had mobile stages, of which there were more than 20, the PAP news agency reported.
In all, more than 100,000 Polish Americans took part in the 2023 Pulaski Day Parade, from the US states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Duda danced the polonaise with one of the folk ensembles and met with various Polish American groups, posing for photos with them, the PAP news agency reported.
In his speech to the gathering, the Polish president said that “Russian imperialism, which forced many of your parents and grandparents to flee Poland, has revived itself.”
He appealed to Polish Americans “to work for the Polish-American alliance and for the alliance between America and Europe.”
Duda hailed the Polish-American community for its “great contribution” to Poland regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1989 and to the country’s accession to NATO.
He said: “Thanks to your support, American forces are stationed in Poland, and we are in a close alliance.”
The president stated that Poland’s security was based on efforts to strengthen national defences, also through “enormous weapons purchases in the US” and on efforts to strengthen NATO, which is led by the United States.
Sunday’s parade in New York was one of the events marking the General Pulaski Memorial Day, which was established by the US Congress in 1929. Similar parades took place in other American cities, including Philadelphia.
The occasion commemorates Gen. Kazimierz Pułaski/Casimir Pulaski, a Polish and American independence hero who was killed while leading the US forces in the 1779 Battle of Savannah during the American War of Independence, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, pulaskiparade.com, prezydent.pl
