POLAND: An EU Lawsuit & more – 10th Oct 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 10th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off this edition with internal affairs. In twenty twenty-two, the EU implemented a fifteen percent minimum income tax on global giants, such as Google, in all member states. The deadline to implement the decision was the end of twenty twenty-three, and Poland missed the deadline since the new government brought the issue to the parliament only on the 25th of September this year.

So the European Commission filed a lawsuit against the country and took the matter to the European Court of Justice. Poland may face some fines. In the meantime, the parliament plans to enact the law before the end of twenty twenty-four, and companies with 850 million dollars in profit per year will pay their income taxes according to the new rate.

Next up, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the two American presidential candidates, continue to fight for votes from the Polish diaspora. The America Demografia website estimates that nine million Polish Americans live in the US and this big number makes them a valuable source of votes.

On Monday, the 7th, Donald Trump celebrated Casimir Pulaski Day, which commemorates a Polish military commander who fought alongside American forces in the American Revolutionary War, earning the title of the Father of the American Cavalry. He also gave an interview to Polish television station TV Republika and praised Polish President Duda.

On the other hand, Harris said that if Trump wins, he will not help Poland because he doesn’t want to give funds to NATO countries to help Ukraine against Russian aggression.

In foreign affairs updates, on Saturday, the 5th Polish foreign ministry started the evacuation of Poles from war-affected Lebanon. A government plane arrived at Beirut, the capital of the country, to evacuate those who asked for help, including some nationals from other European Union states. Another plane also carried medical help for injured people, handing them over to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister, also asked Polish citizens in Iran to leave the country immediately because the conflict between Israel and Iran intensified after Iran fired over 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week. Sikorski also called President Duda to appoint an ambassador to Israel. Currently, Poland does not have an ambassador in the country due to diplomatic tension. Back in twenty twenty-one the previous Polish government limited restitution claims for Holocaust survivors. After the incident, both countries downgraded their diplomatic ties, and Poland recalled its ambassador.

Since we mentioned Duda, this will be the first time in Polish history that a president will face a trial. In twenty twenty-three, President Duda and the former Law and Justice government criticized a movie titled The Green Border by Polish director Agnieszka Holland, who received a lot of international prizes for her film. The movie depicts the pain and hardships of the immigrants who have been trying to cross from Belarus to Poland.

Duda criticized the movie because he said it glorified illegal immigrants and showed Polish border guards acting cruel and evil. He also said that only pigs sit in theaters, a phrase Poles used to denounce Nazi propaganda movies during WW2. Right after, the Polish Center for Monitoring Xenophobic and Racist Behavior filed a lawsuit against the president for calling people pigs.

On Friday, the 4th District Court in Warsaw decided to bring President Duda to trial, and the first hearing will take place on the 24th of October, twenty twenty-five. People will be able to watch the hearing live.

In other news, earlier this year, the Polish government decided to train Ukrainians living in Poland to fight in the war against Russia upon the Ukrainian government’s request. However, on Friday, the 4th, the Polish Ministry of National Defense announced that only 300 Ukrainians applied for the training. Ukrainian Pravda Media Journal estimates that 300,000 Ukrainian men currently live in Poland. The ministry said Ukrainians who want to volunteer can apply to the Ukrainian consulate in the city of Lublin, in the east of Poland.

Next up, on Wednesday, the 9th, the government approved the budget for twenty twenty-five and sent it to parliament for approval. The country expects the economy to grow by almost four percent, while the inflation will be five percent. Moreover, the health and military sectors will spend the most. The government will also spend 700 million dollars on new protection measures against floods and repairing the destruction that the recent flood caused.

Speaking of the aftermath of the recent flood that we reported on in previous shows, on Tuesday, the 8th, authorities warned people not to pick up mushrooms in flood-affected areas. Mushroom picking is popular in Poland, as the country has a lot of variety of edible mushrooms appearing after rains. However, authorities said the mushrooms might have absorbed contaminated water in flood-affected forests. On social media, people from flood-affected areas shared some mushrooms as big as car tires.

The Polish economy has risen in the past ten years, but it has not increased citizens’ purchasing power to buy a flat. On Tuesday, the 10th, the news outlet Rzeczpospolita daily published an article saying that the housing prices are soaring each day in the country. For example, in Warsaw, a person needs 92 monthly gross salaries, (each wage being 2,000 dollars) to buy a fifty-five-square-foot apartment. This was 84 monthly salaries in twenty twenty-one. The experts said that the figures may worsen in the future. Many potential buyers are waiting for the launch of a government-backed program offering affordable loans to first-time buyers.

On Wednesday, the 9th, the spokesman of Lot Polish Airline said that they would suspend flights from Poland to Beijing, China, due to low sales compared to flights with shorter routes. In twenty twenty-two, Russia closed its airspace for Europe in response to the EU ban on Russian airplanes due to the country's invasion of Ukraine. As a result, it takes longer for Europeans to travel to China. Lot Polish Airlines offered alternative flights for passengers who already bought tickets to suspended routes.

Moving on to healthcare, on Tuesday, the 8th, therapy buses traveled across Gdańsk to raise awareness about the importance of therapy to prevent suicides. The buses included psychiatrists ready to help people in need for three days. They also provided people with information brochures about how to receive free therapy in state institutions, also saying that having therapy is not a shame.

The suicide rate draws huge concerns in the country, as Poland ranked 19th in suicide numbers this year. Each day, at least fifteen people take their own lives. In the meantime, Warsaw Municipality installed signs reading 'don't give up on life' to prevent suicides on the city’s bridges. The signs also included emergency numbers to receive immediate physiological help.

And to close this edition, on Monday, the 7th, United Surveys, an American survey company, published data showing that Poles are not happy with the punishment given to drunk drivers. In the previous month, a car accident in Warsaw took the life of a thirty-seven-year-old man and left his wife and children severely injured. The responsible person was free despite having been involved in five previous traffic accidents. Currently, the punishment for drunk driving in Poland is up to three years in prison, along with the confiscation of a vehicle and a temporary driving ban. However, the survey showed that many believe the current penalties are insufficient to deter offenders.

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

Do you know that besides the Rorshok 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 world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about 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 for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

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