Poles protest president’s plane crash
Protesters have set fire to an effigy of Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, claiming the 2010 plane crash in Russia in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others died was an assassination. Continue reading
Pre-Flight Safety Breaches found in Polish Armed Forces – Media
The Polish Supreme Audit Office (NIK) has found numerous violations in the organization of flights for top officials in the Polish Armed Forces between 2005 and 2010, Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Thursday. Continue reading
Debt crisis hardens Eurosceptics’ antipathy in Poland
In Poland, Euroscepticism is the preserve of the conservative Law and Justice party, and its leader, Jarosław Kaczynski. Until last year, he could have been described as a mild sceptic, but the debt crisis has amplified his antipathy. Continue reading
Poland’s rightists want death penalty back
Polands biggest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), said Friday it would push for bringing back capital punishment.
‘There are no EU rules which forbid this,’ Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chief of the right-wing party, said in Warsaw. Continue reading
Kaczynski twins harmed Polish diplomacy – WikiLeaks
Political cronyism harmed Poland’s foreign policy under the rule of its late president Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website weeks before a Polish election. Continue reading
Polish Election Campaign Fails to Change Trends
Poland’s parliamentary election campaign has so far offered little beyond PR stunts, which haven’t visibly impacted voters’ preferences five weeks ahead of election day. The ruling party continues to have a commanding lead over rival conservatives. Continue reading
Polish politics: Back in form
A COUPLE of weeks ago we praised the comforting sobriety of Polish public debate. Two cerebral types were discussing pension reform (a topic studied at length in this week’s print edition) on prime-time television. Yes, the show itself proved a touch lacklustre. But at least politicians and pundits broached a serious subject. Gone were the petty squabbles, long a staple of Poland’s politics. Gone was the political monoculture where Law and Justice (PiS), the main opposition, devoted all its energies to accusing prime minister Donald Tusk of, at best, negligence and possibly complicity in the tragic plane crash which killed Lech KaczyÅ„ski, Poland’s president at the time, along with 95 others near the Russian city of Smolensk on April 10th last year. Gone were the days when Mr Tusk’s government and the ruling Civic Platform (PO) coasted through without instituting much needed, and potentially unpopular, reforms merely by not being as dotty as PiS. Continue reading
Poland should delay euro for 20 years – Kaczynski
Poland should postpone adopting the euro for at least two decades because of the problems weighing on the currency bloc, the leader of the main Polish opposition party was quoted on Monday as saying. Continue reading
Is Poland A Chip In A Russian-German Game?
Poland’s controversial opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said this week Poland is a Russian-German playground, or a playground where Poland’s national interests succumb to those of its mightier neighbors. The words were flatly dismissed as outrageous by other Polish politicians—at a time when firms from both Russia and Germany appear to be working against Poland’s effort to diversify its supplies of natural gas. Continue reading
Kaczynski’s 47% Support Means Polish Deficit Cuts May Be Slowed
Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s stronger-than- expected performance in losing the July 4 presidential election may revitalize the opposition, damping optimism for government plans to reduce the budget deficit, political scientists said. Continue reading
