Poland’s president has appointed a special committee as the country prepares to mark the centenary of regaining independence next year.

President Duda speaks at the first meeting of the Committee for National Commemorations of the 100th Anniversary of Poland Regaining Indpendence. Photo: PAP/President's Office/Grzegorz Jakubowski

The committee, which includes members of various political parties and organisations, is tasked with coordinating work to commemorate the milestone with a bang nationwide.

Speaking at the body’s maiden meeting in Warsaw on Monday, President Andrzej Duda appealed to groups across the political spectrum to “stand together, while rejecting all divisions” ahead of the anniversary.

He also asked them to help build a sense of community in the nation while honouring all those “great Polish people whom we call the fathers of our independence.”

“We are here together after those 100 years -- people of different views, sometimes very different views on what the country should be like today -- because we are all certain of one thing: that Poland should be independent, that it should be sovereign, that it should be free,” Duda said during the meeting at the presidential palace.

Poland regained independence on 11 November 1918 after 123 years of partition by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. (gs/pk)

Source: PAP