Scotland is preparing for new elections to the Holyrood parliament. You might think that just a while ago, we voted for Westminster MPs and that was just after the dust had settled on the independence referendum. That seems a tight election calendar. But if you are a Pole living in the UK, this is only […]
politics
Why I stopped writing about Polish politics for a while
One of my readers e-mailed me with question why I am not writing about Polish politics for Britske listy any more. He said that there is so much going on in Poland and that the coverage in Czech media is pretty chaotic. The fact is that I gave up covering this events not only on […]
Poland – a divided country
The construction of the alternative universe of PiS, that I described few years back in my first article for Britske Listy (English version here), was an overwhelming success. This system of interlocking conspiracy theories and alternative version of history appeals to many Poles, who believe in it. And “believe” is the right word here, as similarities […]
Polish media under fire. A great transformation, or a standard changing of the guard?
The overall transformation from public to national media seems to be an indispensable part of PiS’ “conservative revolution”. But Europe looks with worry upon the new Polish government’s introducing new laws, purging the public media and attempting to smother criticism. Changes have never been conducted with such great momentum, on such a scale and with […]
20 miles to heaven
Mariusz “Pudzian” Pudzianowski, a former strongman champion and MMA fighter owns a transport company. Annoyed by the situation in which migrants in Calais try get past that last 20 miles that separate them from Great Britain by breaking into the lorries and by the fact that hauliers are left to face the consequences (including a hefty fines […]
The noise of PiS’ barrel organs
“Poles of worst sort”, as Jarosław Kaczyński branded those, who inform foreign media about the situation in the country, have suceeded in their attempts to bring Polish issues to the attention of the rest of Europe. EU institutions are now taking a closer look on Law and Justice (PiS) actions and disrespect to the constitution. […]
PiS is crossing the Rubicon
It cannot be stressed enough how extremely significant PiS’ actions are: we are witnessing the most important events in Polish politics since 1989 that might mean a complete rejection of the democratic mechanisms introduced by governments of Tadeusz Mazowiecki and his successors. One has to remember, that the new statute of the parliament is already […]
The mutiny of the lemmings
In last month’s parliamentary elections in Poland, the right-wing Law and Justice Party won a clear majority. With the opposition abated, they are now setting their sights on rewriting the constitution and dramatically changing the Polish political system. But will they succeed? This article was written for Visegrad Revue When Visegrad Revue asked me to […]
Poland can’t take chances with PiS
In his recent article in Politico, Adrian Karatnycky calls for Poles to “Give PiS a chance.” They did give PiS a chance, when they elected the party to power about six weeks ago, and it was enough for PiS to completely squander this mandate of trust. The thing is that Poles just don’t trust the […]
Tens of thousands of people protested on the streets in Poland. What is their anger about?
Poles voted Prawo i Sprawiedliwość to power as they believed in their promises of delivering “higher quality of democracy”. But for last month Kaczyński and his party did exactly the opposite. Recent attempts to take over the state institution made Poles really angry. According to different sources, 50 000 to 70 000 people took the […]