‘Our application is fantastic. I see it as something which can definitely be implemented. This is a project aimed at the development of culture and the city itself. We want to realize this programme with your help and involvement, as you are the ones who create culture. People think of us as winners; I heard it yesterday in Warsaw from the journalists and local government representatives. The people have been the primary value of our efforts of the recent years. A community of those willing to promote and develop Lublin has been established. Today we perceive our city differently, and we ourselves are perceived differently, too,’ said the Mayor of Lublin, Mr Krzysztof Żuk.
‘Of course we wanted to win. We hoped to come first and we believed we would. Our goal was for Lublin to be noticed in Europe. I wanted Lublin to be shortlisted among the top European cities,’ added Deputy Mayor, Mr Włodzimierz Wysocki, who was responsible for Lublin’s participation in the ECC 2016 project.
‘I am speaking not as the Marshal, but as Krzysztof Hetman – born and raised in Lublin. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Mayors, Mr KoZa, Mr Michał Karapuda, and everyone else who worked on our application. These people dared to face the giants, and in my opinion, they won the battle. I honestly admire your enthusiasm without which it would be impossible to change this city and this region. We cannot question the verdict, but I do hope that the Director of the Castle Museum, Mr Zygmunt Nasalski, will have nothing against my making a decision to take this historical table with the Devil’s Paw mark and place it in Warsaw as a symbol of fairness and justice,’ said the Marshal of the Lublin Province, Mr Krzysztof Hetman.
‘I was there when this idea was spawned. Until then, there was no such social initiative as ambitious in scale and scope. We have not been chosen the European Capital of Culture, but we surely succeeded in every other way. Lublin has changed, and its residents changed as well. We have shown Poland that we can,’ said the former Mayor of Lublin, Mr Adam Wasilewski.