POLAND: A new COVID-19 variant & more – 1st Aug 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 1st of August twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s start off with foreign affairs. Under the Law and Justice rule between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty-three, Poland and Hungary had good relations until the government changed last year. The new government criticized Hungary for having good relations with Russia and also blocking the EU’s sixty billion-dollar aid package to Ukraine. However, until this time, politicians from both sides did not loudly voice their disagreements.

This week, on Saturday the 27th, the worsening relations between Poland and Hungary came to light after Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, said Poland is hypocritical because it accuses Hungary of conducting relations with Russia while it is implicitly buying natural gas from them. As a response, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, the Polish Deputy Foreign Minister, rejected the claims and advised Hungary to leave the EU and NATO because the country no longer likes both organizations and wants to side with Russia.

Radosław Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, also joined the debate. In July, Orban undertook unilateral peace missions to Moscow and Beijing, China, as part of Hungary's rotating presidency of the EU. Sikorski said EU members have told Orban that he has no powers to negotiate on their behalf; however, Orban did not listen to the warnings. Sikorski said this action did not empower Hungary's position as a mediator; but isolated the country from the EU and NATO. Wanna know more? Check out the Multilateral Update with the link in the show notes!

On Saturday the 27th, the country entered a new era after the parliament accepted a law that empowered police and border guards’ authority to use their weapons. From now on, security forces can use weapons with impunity in the case of a threat to the safety of an individual or the country, and they will not face any criminal investigation if they shoot a criminal as long as the person poses any threat.

The government decided on the law after an illegal immigrant killed a Polish border guard on the Belarusian border with a hand-made spear last month. At that incident, and in many others, border guards could not use their weapons to stop immigrants from injuring soldiers because they knew they would face investigation. Now border guards will be able to shoot illegal immigrants. However, this raised concerns among human activists, primarily Michael O'Flaherty, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights. They fear border guards may now kill immigrants without reason.

On that note about immigration, on the same day, Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister, said Poland will face a new wave of Ukrainian refugees this year. Sikorski emphasized that Russia started another comprehensive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and the country has lost half of its power generation capacity. This will cause Ukrainians to struggle with heating their homes in the upcoming winter. As a result, more Ukrainians will come to Poland and possibly other European countries.

In other preparations, on Wednesday the 31st, the government said that the new civil protection law is almost ready. Civil protection law will prepare the country for a possible war situation in the near future. Tomasz Siemoniak, the Interior Minister, said that they analyzed the war in Ukraine and prepared new precautions if a similar war happens in Poland. According to the law, the country will spend 1.5 billion dollars annually to build new shelters, develop a new mass evacuation plan, and develop systems for secure government communications. Also, it will teach more evacuation teams, such as volunteer organizations, and firefighters around the country.

On Monday the 29th, the Polish foreign ministry said the government is preparing to evacuate Poles from Lebanon, where there is a risk of a war between Israel and Lebanon. Recently, Israel conducted air strikes on Lebanon after Iran supported Hezbollah, an Islamist political party and militant group located in the western part of Lebanon, and then carried out several attacks on Israel, which drastically increased the risk of war. The Polish foreign ministry said there are currently 500 Poles in Lebanon, and they keep in contact with them. In the upcoming days, Poland will evacuate its citizens.

It has been a long time since we have heard about COVID-19. However, on Friday the 26th, the health ministry ordered new vaccines from Novavax, an American company, after a new variant of COVID-19, known as JN1, broke out in Poland and the world. The Health Ministry said the number of COVID-19 cases increased because the new variant spreads more easily among people. Also, it can infect people who were previously vaccinated against COVID-19 because JN1 has mutations that allow it to partially evade immunity despite previous infections and vaccinations.

Speaking of COVID-19. Remember that in twenty twenty, the country held a presidential election in the midst of the COVID-19 breakout? The Law and Justice Party, the government of the time, decided to hold the elections via a mixed system of postal and traditional in-person voting to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. However, back then the opposition parties and the EU were concerned about possible election fraud by the Law and Justice. Andrzej Duda, the candidate for Law and Justice, won the election and became the new president.

Three years later, in twenty twenty-three, the newly elected parliament established a parliamentary commission to investigate the elections. On Friday the 26th, the commission finally concluded that Law and Justice and its members abused their powers and broke the law. The commission will file criminal notices against Jarosław Kaczyński, the president of the party, Mateusz Morawiecki, the former prime minister, and other members of Law and Justice. That means that the prosecutor’s office will take over the investigation and will open a court case against these politicians. In the meantime, Law and Justice supporters stated online that the current government wants to eliminate Law and Justice as a whole.

Recall that two weeks ago, the parliament rejected the legalization of abortion after the parliamentary voting that required three more MPs votes to accept the law. On Friday the 26th, the ruling coalition parties, The Civic Platform, the Left, and Poland twenty fifty, announced that they re-submitted the bill so that a second vote would take place.

Moving on to sports, on Monday the 29th, TVP, the main state channel, fired Przemysław Babiarz, one of the journalists who was presenting the Paris Olympics twenty twenty-four, due to his comments on a song represented during the opening ceremony of the Olympics. During the live stream, Babiarz said that the message of John Lennon's song Imagine unfortunately described a vision of communism. The head of TVP Sport, Jakub Kwiatkowski, said that Babiarz’s comments were political and sports should remain apolitical. He added that his aim as the head of TVP Sport is to depoliticize the channel. After the incident, over 100 journalists and Polish athletes signed a petition to support Babiarz and demanded TVP hire him back. Donald Tusk, the prime minister, said it's unclear which comments were more foolish: Mr. Babiarz's comment or his boss’, and that he will not be involved in the situation.

To wrap up, the issues with swimming pools and bathing areas all over the country continue. On Sunday the 28th, authorities took twenty people to the hospital after an excessive amount of chlorine in a pool poisoned them in Warsaw. Authorities reported that the chlorine in the pool was ten times higher than the allowed amount. The authorities are also closing down some bathing areas in the country due to a cyanobacteria threat. They warn people not to enter waters with red sign alerts.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Do you know that besides the Poland Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the earth covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update about all the world's major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates to see the full list and find the link in the show notes as well.

Do zobaczenia!