POLAND: Belarusian Border & more – 30th May 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 30th of May twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border. On Saturday, the 25th, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was thinking about opening one border crossing with Belarus. Remember that Poland and Belarus closed their borders because the two countries’ relations worsened due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and because illegal immigrants were crossing the border from Belarus. However, Tusk said that completely closed borders harmed Poles living near Belarus since they could no longer carry on trade with the country. He said the government would only reopen the border if military commanders said that there wouldn’t be any security risks.

However, on Monday, the 27th, the government announced its plan to tighten the security at the Belarusian border. The executive will spend at least two and a half billion dollars, marking the largest operation to strengthen Poland's eastern border and NATO's eastern flank since nineteen forty-five. The government will build a new wall with surveillance cameras, drones, and new satellite security systems.

More about the Belarusian border as on Tuesday, the 28th, an illegal immigrant stabbed a Polish soldier with a hand-made spear when he was trying to cross to Poland from Belarus. The soldier was trying to block a gap that immigrants had opened in the border fence when the perpetrator injured him. Doctors said that the wounded soldier is now stable.

Speaking of security, on Friday, the 24th, the government decided to tighten security measures at the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, a crucial hub for transporting Western arms and military equipment to Ukraine. Last week, police forces detained twelve Russian spies who were planning to sabotage the transportation of military equipment at the airport. The Polish authorities said the same group was also planning to murder Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his next visit to Poland. Tomasz Siemoniak, the interior minister, said the country has never experienced such intense spying activities in its history.

Like the number of spies, scams also increased. On Thursday, the 23rd, Poland’s Scientific and Academic Computer Network, or NASK, warned citizens that scammers use deep fake technology to fool people. Scammers create videos of people with AI technology to impersonate other people. They take real footage, and modify it with AI to get what they want.

For instance, in recent days, NASK reported that fake videos of President Andrzej Duda and Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna have been circulating on social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram. In the videos, the President and Health Minister recommended that Poles invest in a company that didn’t exist, and the money they sent to this company actually went to the scammers.

Eleven Polish farmers started a hunger strike in the parliament on the 9th of May, after a crowded protest in Warsaw against the EU’s Green Deal — which aims to limit the agricultural sector to reduce CO2 emissions throughout the EU. They demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Tusk, but he said that he would not meet with them because they did not represent real Polish farmers. This week, medical workers have taken two farmers to the hospital after they fainted from dehydration. After this dramatic situation, on Monday, the 27th, President Duda met with protesting farmers in parliament. He said he supported their demands on the Green Deal and invited farmers to the presidential palace. President Duda is known for his skepticism towards the Green Deal, while Prime Minister Tusk supports it.

Moving on to election updates. On Thursday, the 23rd, Tusk said that he would not run for the next year’s presidential elections and ended the long-lasting talks about his candidacy

On that note about elections, after the outbreak of COVID-19 in twenty twenty, the Law and Justice Party, the governing party at the time and now the main opposition, held presidential elections remotely, and citizens voted by post. However, at that time, the EU and opposition parties expressed their concerns that the election might not be fair and that Law and Justice could cheat on the election results.

On Friday, the 24th, a parliamentary commission summoned Jarosław Kaczyński, the president of Law and Justice, and questioned him about his decision to hold the previous twenty twenty presidential election via postal ballot. The parliamentary commission thinks that postal voting is unconstitutional and that Kaczyński damaged the state’s budget by 25 million dollars when his party printed an excessive number of postal ballots.

Up next, on Saturday, the 25th, students of the University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków held a wave of demonstrations on the university campuses to denounce Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrations seem to support worldwide student protests against Israel, which started in the US last month. The students demand the president of the universities condemn Israel and cut universities’ academic relations with the country.

Let’s get back to foreign policies for a minute. On Monday, the 26th, the foreign minister said that Poland has become increasingly influential in global politics. In late twenty twenty-two, President Duda visited several African countries.

On Monday, the 27th, the Polish Center for International Aid opened a training center in Tanzania where Polish doctors will train 1,800 Tanzanian doctors and nurses. The project aims to tackle the rising number of injuries in the country due to heavy rains, landslides, mudslides, and ship accidents during storms. On the other hand, Poland also helped Sudan with over one million dollars of financial support to help people who are suffering because of the civil war.

In unrelated news, on Saturday, the 28th, Polish officials' diplomatic efforts saved a Polish citizen from the death penalty in Congo. Officials of the country detained Mariusz Majewski in March because he passed by military installations. In May, Congo courts accused Majewski of espionage, sabotage, and destruction of military installations and decided to give him the death penalty. Luckily, after Poland’s diplomatic efforts, Congo backtracked on its decision, and Majewski is now in Brussels.

Recall that two weeks ago, the Parliament accepted a proposal to recognize Silesian as a language. One million people in the west of the country speak Silesian, which has features of Polish and German. However, on Wednesday, the 29th, President Duda vetoed the proposal, saying that Silesian is not a language, but a Polish dialect. A nationalistic part of society has welcomed the decision, while Silesians say they are ashamed and shocked by it.

And to close this edition on a cultural note, the cast of the Netflix global hit Bridgerton announced that they will visit Warsaw on the 5th of June to meet with fans in Poland. Actress Claudia Jessie, who plays Eloise Bridgerton, and Adjoa Andoh, cast as Lady Danbury, will attend the event. However, you can’t simply show up. Bridgerton lovers must participate in a contest to win an invitation. Fans need to follow Polish influencers Zosia Ślotała and Jakob Kosel on Instagram and answer the question, "What would your pseudonym be if you had to replace Lady Whistledown?". Forty people with the best answers will receive an invitation and a plus-one.

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

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