Polish MEP Mularczyk to Cubans: reconciliation does not mean impunity

Polish Member of the European Parliament Arkadiusz Mularczyk said in Madrid on November 3 that Poland’s experience holds three lessons for Cuba, and that reconciliation and transition do not mean impunity. He spoke at the event where Rosa María Payá presented the transition plan for Cuba, one day before the 30th Ibero-American Summit.

His remarks are summarized here from the simultaneous Spanish interpretation heard in the video of the event. Mularczyk belongs to the European Conservatives and Reformists group and to Poland’s Law and Justice party. He said he spent almost 20 years in the Polish parliament; according to his European Parliament CV, he was also a secretary of state at Poland’s Foreign Ministry from 2022 to 2023.

Mularczyk sees Cuba on the threshold

Mularczyk recalled that Poland lived for almost four decades under communism and regained its freedom thanks to the courage of ordinary people, the Solidarity movement, the moral conviction of Pope John Paul II, and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

He said Cuba is on the threshold: the loss of Venezuela’s support and constant blackouts have exposed the communist system, while political prisoners sit in jail and families struggle to survive. That crisis, he said, raises a fundamental question: what happens the day after communism falls in Cuba?

Three lessons from Poland for Cuba

The first lesson, he said, is that removing communism is not enough. Mularczyk noted that Poland joined NATO and the European Union and built one of Europe’s largest economies, but acknowledged mistakes in its transition: poorly executed lustration laws, communist elites who kept considerable power inside institutions, privatizations that helped only some groups, and a lack of accountability for crimes against humanity committed during the communist era.

He added that factions from that era still hold influence within Poland’s political system. He cited, without naming him, a current Polish lawmaker who was a member of the Communist Party, and argued that, in his view, Poland’s constitutional system is under critical assault today. His warning for Cuba: communism can be dismantled, but the systems built over decades can last a long time.

The second lesson is that freedom requires true justice. He recalled that Poland created an institute to preserve memory and prosecute the crimes of the communist regime, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), led from 2021 to 2025 by Poland’s current president, Karol Nawrocki, and he invited Cubans to visit it in Warsaw. A democratic Cuba, he said, must preserve the archives of its State Security agencies so that those responsible can be held to account. Reconciliation and transition, he said, do not mean impunity.

The third lesson is that economic transformation must benefit the Cuban people. According to Mularczyk, Cuba will need private property laws and institutions to support them, and cannot allow monopolies once controlled by communist elites to be replaced by new ones serving their interests.

Mularczyk backs suspending the EU agreement with the regime

The MEP said Cubans inside and outside the island must have a voice in building the new Cuba, welcomed the Liberation Agreement through which civic organizations are joining forces to prepare the transition, and stressed that Cuba’s future must be decided by Cubans themselves.

On Europe, he said it bears great responsibility and that in the European Parliament they are focused on fighting for a free and democratic Cuba and on suspending the political agreement between the European Union and the Havana regime. In its resolution of June 18, 2026, adopted by 283 votes to 199 with 85 abstentions, the Parliament reiterated its previous positions on activating that agreement’s suspension clause.

He closed by warning that regaining freedom is only the beginning, and that the fall of communism cannot mean the end of the fight for freedom.

Read our full coverage of the presentation of the transition plan for Cuba.