Duda: Poland beginning to catch up with Western Europe

In the last 30 years, since the country's first partially-free elections in 1989, Poland has been striving to reach the level of Western Europe but it is only starting to catch up with it due to many mistakes made along the way, President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday. Speaking at a ceremonial session of the Senate, Duda stressed that the 30th anniversary of the first free elections to the Senate still plays an important role in supporting the Polish diaspora. "Our compatriots see the changing Poland," he said, adding that "the general balance of the changes is definitely positive" and shows a completely different country than that in 1989. Duda said Poland was now "free, independent, sovereign and far more prosperous."