POLAND: Duda and Trump at CPAC & more – 27th Feb 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 27th of February twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s start off with foreign affairs. On Saturday, the 22nd, President Andrzej Duda met with US President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC in Washington, sparking significant controversy. The meeting might have been too short for meaningful discussion, as it only lasted ten minutes.

Additionally, the CPAC is known for its conservative audience, which could divide Polish society and harm Poland's relationships with other countries. Critics say that Trump was disrespectful because he arrived one and a half hours late to the meeting, undermining the importance of the US-Poland relationship.

Poland and other EU countries have criticized Trump's negotiations with Russian President Putin regarding peace in Ukraine, as these discussions excluded European partners and Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the 25th, PM Tusk met with António Costa, the European Council President, in Warsaw. They discussed peace talks about Ukraine, EU security, and military cooperation between Poland and the EU.

Tusk emphasized that Europe and Ukraine should participate in peace negotiations regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war and expressed confidence that the EU would unite to support Ukraine's defense against Russia. He also requested EU funding for Poland’s Eastern Shield defense initiative to improve the country's military and strengthen security along its eastern borders.

Costa announced that the upcoming European Council summit on the 6th of March will focus on strengthening Ukraine’s position in peace talks and improving European security.

On Monday, the 24th, Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister, spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the Russian attack was not self-defense but a colonial war against Ukraine. Sikorski reminded that in twenty twenty-two, 141 countries at the UN condemned Russia’s actions and supported Ukraine’s independence. He added that some countries like the US are losing focus on Ukraine’s fight and urged them to stay committed.

In an update to a story from a previous show, on Friday, the 21st, the Lower House of Parliament approved a bill to temporarily suspend the right to seek asylum at the border with Belarus. The Senate will discuss the bill, and if it passes, the government could suspend asylum rights for up to sixty days in specific border areas, with possible extensions through parliament. Vulnerable groups, like unaccompanied children and pregnant women, will not face this suspension.

The government believes this move is necessary to limit Belarus and Russia from using migrants for political reasons like pressuring the EU, destabilizing borders, and retaliating against sanctions.

Next up, internal affairs. On Tuesday, the 25th, Jacek Dobrzyński, the spokesman for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services, announced that the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested three former directors of the State Forests, a government organization responsible for managing publicly-owned forests, on suspicion of corruption and mismanagement. They mismanaged 500,000 zloty, which is 120,000 dollars, allowing Dariusz Matecki, a member of Parliament from the opposing Law and Justice party, to receive a salary from the State Forests without working.

The Prosecutor General's Office asked the Parliament to lift Matecki's parliamentary immunity to continue the investigation. Meanwhile, Matecki said on social media that he worked remotely during the pandemic and has evidence to prove this. Now, the State Forests is introducing new measures, such as stricter hiring practices, financial oversight, and regular audits, to prevent corruption and mismanagement in the future.

Last week, we reported that debris from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fell in four places in western Poland. On Tuesday, the 25th, SpaceX explained that a small leak of liquid oxygen during the mission caused the rocket to move faster, which led to it falling uncontrollably over Europe. They added that they are working with the Polish government to recover and clean up the debris. Fortunately, they didn’t find toxic materials in it.

The Polish Space Agency is also collaborating with the European Space Agency to tackle this issue. They created the Zero Debris initiative, which focuses on reducing the amount of debris in Earth’s orbit and improving tracking methods to keep space safer.

In tech news, on Monday, the 24th, Poland launched its first Polish AI Language Model, or PLLuM, for businesses, researchers, and the public. Krzysztof Gawkowski, the Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister, said at the opening ceremony that Poland should become more independent in technology and rely less on foreign AI, which could threaten its tech future. The Ministry of Digital Affairs created PLLuM using unique Polish-language data with over 100 billion words, and they followed Polish and EU copyright laws to collect data.

PLLuM can generate and analyze text in Polish for various uses, but it cannot do web searches or effectively understand and process other languages. The Ministry announced plans to integrate PLLuM into the government's digital services platforms to improve efficiency.

Want to check out this new AI Language Model? Follow the link in the show notes!

In new policy updates, on Tuesday, the 25, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, the Minister of Family, Labor, and Social Policy, spoke to Business Insider Polska, an online news portal focused on business. She criticized the rule that requires women to undergo genetic testing to determine their baby's gender for shortened maternity leave after a miscarriage or stillbirth. In Poland, women need a birth certificate to get maternity leave, and according to Polish law, birth certificates must include gender. She said this requirement can be emotionally difficult during such a hard time.

Instead, Agnieszka proposed access to benefits based on a medical certificate without needing to know the baby's gender. The Ministry will discuss this proposal before sending it to the government for a vote on changes to the rules.

On that note, also on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health announced that they are thinking about covering the costs of genetic tests for pregnant women. This idea comes after a controversial decision by the Constitutional Court under the previous ruling party, Law and Justice, which restricted the reasons women could legally have an abortion. The ruling removed the option to have abortions in cases of serious fetal abnormalities, allowing pregnancy termination only when the woman's life or health is at risk or in cases of rape or incest.

Because of this, many Polish women have started using genetic tests to check their babies' health so they can find out early about any issues and plan for necessary medical care.

Sadly, On Wednesday, the 26th, Polish authorities confirmed three murders of elderly women in Warsaw over a few days, and there may be more victims. They have arrested two suspects in connection with the crimes, a Polish citizen and a Ukrainian. Police found the latest victim, a seventy-three-year-old woman, dead in the Ursynów neighborhood after someone forced her to change her bank transaction limits.

Similar cases happened in Śródmieście and Ochota districts. The investigation is still ongoing, and the police warned citizens to stay alert and not share personal information with strangers. They also advised people to report any suspicious behavior.

Wrapping up with sports updates, on Monday, the 24th, Iga Świątek, Poland's top tennis player, appeared in a promotional video for the Women's Tennis Association or WTA. She announced big changes in women's tennis, like the transformation of image, identity, and messaging, as well as updates to broadcasts. The WTA will work with players and their teams to make these changes, which will debut at the Indian Wells tournament.

Iga also launched her personal website to connect with fans, sharing her tennis achievements and giving a peek into her hobbies, favorite books, music, and movies. Check out the site using the link in the show notes!

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

In case you didn’t know, besides the Rorshok PolandUpdate, we also do others! We’ve got many country updates from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. But we also have non-country updates, including the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions, and the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water,

If you want to check out the full list of updates, go to https://rorshok.com/updates/. The link is in the show notes.

Do zobaczenia!