Donald Tusk: The times of blissful calm are over, we mustn't capitulate to evil

 The battle against authoritarian trends, corruption and lies is being fought on several fronts today, and its most dramatic illustration is the conflict in Ukraine, but the responsibility for the fate of the Western civilization lies with each and every citizen, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday in his address to the EPP Congress in Bucharest.He cautioned that "the times of blissful calm are over" and that "there is no objective reason to capitulate before evil"."The times of blissful calm are over. The post-war epoch is gone. We are living in new times, in a pre-war epoch. In fact, for some of our brothers, it is no longer even a pre-war time. It is a full-scale war in its most cruel form. It is not our fault that our daily vocabulary includes, once again, such words as fighting, bombings, rocket attacks, genocide," said the head of the Polish government.He pointed out that Europe "is faced with a simple choice: Either we undertake the fight to defend our borders, our territory, our principles, and as a consequence, our citizens and future generations, or we will fall. There is no objective reason to capitulate before evil. The potential of Europe, economic, financial, demographic, moral, is greater than the potential of those who attack us," Tusk emphasized.He also said that it is crucial that Europe "believes in its strength, also when it comes to the context of our defense capacity. We cannot live under illusions. No one will take our place in this fight for our safety and for our future. We ourselves are the best guarantors of our safety and of our unity. As you well know, the only person you can count on is yourself," Tusk continued."Europeans will be united when they see with all clarity that the Union is really our Europe, 'a safe and good home for the people', as our manifesto says. Today, this is exactly the signal that our farmers and food producers are waiting for impatiently. They also want the Europe that protects them and understands their fears," the leader of the government in Warsaw also stated.