POLAND: Election Results & more – 9th Apr 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 9th of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let's start off with the local elections. On Sunday, the 7th, citizens voted for mayors and council members across the country. It was a close election, as the conservative Law and Justice Party, or PiS, won with thirty-three percent of all votes, while the ruling Civic Platform received thirty-two percent. The Third Way Alliance, consisting of the Polish People’s party and Poland twenty fifty, took third place with thirteen percent. The far-right opposition Confederation Party got only seven percent, while the Left Party received six percent.

The election showed that the PiS succeeded in the countryside, especially in the east-south part of the country, while liberal coalition parties took the lead in the western cities that are ideologically and physically closer to the EU. Rafał Trzaskowski, the current mayor of Warsaw and candidate of the Civic Platform, gained fifty-nine percent of all votes and secured another term as mayor. In other big cities, like Kraków, there will be run-offs on the 21st of April, as no candidate exceeded the fifty percent threshold.

According to the election results, although Law and Justice ended up first in the race, they didn't get all local governments since the ruling coalition parties received some of the votes. On the issue, Szymon Hołownia, the speaker of the parliament and a partner of the ruling alliance, said that the election result was a warning sign —the coalition parties have to stay together in order to win the next elections. He said there are some serious disputes within the ruling coalition, especially between the Third Way and the Left party, regarding abortion. He said the alliance should resolve its problems before the twenty twenty-five presidential elections.

This week, an Israeli airstrike killed international members of the World Central Kitchen, an NGO working in Gaza for humanitarian needs. Polish, British, Australian, Palestinian, and US citizens died in the attack.

On Friday, the 5th, the Polish foreign ministry summoned the Israeli Ambassador to seek explanations for the death of the Polish citizen. Poland demanded that Israel pay monetary compensation to the victim's family, and include the Polish side in the investigation to find the soldiers responsible for the air attack.

Yacov Livne, the Israeli Ambassador, apologized for the airstrike; however, President Andrzej Duda said that Livne was not sincere and that he was harming Polish-Israeli relations. Some politicians from the far-right Confederation Party demanded that the government expel Yacov Livne from the country, but the executive refused.

A Hong Kong-based company has been operating the strategically important Gdynia port, located in the Baltic Sea. The port is key because the Polish army and NATO use it for wider access to international waters and the transportation of military equipment. However, this month, the port refused to allow the U.S. to unload its military equipment due to logistics issues in the controlled zone. On Thursday, the 4th, Polish security experts and EU officials asked the government to declare the port as critical infrastructure because China controls the Hong Kong-based company. This way, the Polish state will have more power in the port and will be able to interfere if there’s national security problem. Security experts also asked the government to reduce China’s influence on the country as it is a Russian ally.

Up next, on Wednesday, the 3rd, the parliament approved a law to protect whistleblowers. From now on, they will have more security when they inform the state about their companies breaching the law. The new legislation will protect them against retaliation from the company. For example, the company will not be able to demand compensation because the whistleblowers damaged their reputation when reporting them. The government decided to implement this law since every European country should always meet European Union requirements in order to be a member. Poland has been paying a 15,000-dollar daily fine to the EU for not adopting this law since twenty twenty-one.

On that note about the European Union, on Monday, the 8th, the Polish finance ministry announced that the EU might start an excessive deficit procedure against Poland because the country's budget deficit has increased since twenty twenty-three. According to the procedure, the EU will first evaluate the situation and then possibly fine Poland for breaching EU requirements. The EU allows its members to have a budget deficit of up to three percent of their GDPs to control the bloc's inflation. However, Poland said its deficit reached over five percent because they spent money to help Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees and to modernize the army against Russian threats. Poland will try to convince the EU not to impose fines on the country during the procedure.

On Thursday, the 4th, the education ministry announced that the Polish and Ukrainian governments had agreed to introduce compulsory education for Ukrainian children of all ages in Poland. Starting in September this year, around 50,000 to 60,000 Ukrainian children will go to school.

Speaking of Ukraine, do you recall that French President Emmanuel Macron urged NATO countries to send troops to the country at war? Well, that has sparked a debate in Poland on whether the country should send troops or not. Last month, Radosław Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister, supported Macron's intention in one of his statements. However, On Thursday, the 4th, Donald Tusk, the prime minister, ruled out the possibility of sending Polish soldiers to Ukraine. He said that his government does not have any intention to engage in direct conflict with Russia in Ukraine.

Let’s go back to the elections for a minute. Last year, on the 15th of October, the current liberal coalition won the parliamentary elections and replaced the Law and Justice government. On Thursday, the 4th, Agnieszka Buczyńska, the minister of civil society, said she wants to make this day a new holiday to celebrate the ruling coalition's victory. However, this was called into question, as part of society and the opposition Law and Justice Party widely criticized her intentions. They think that national holidays should be special for every single Polish person, not just one part of society. Moreover, people asked the government to avoid any action that may divide the nation.

The election results had some severe effects on society. On Tuesday, the 9th, a forty-four-year-old woman in Bartoszyce injured her husband with a bone from the soup she was cooking as they were arguing about election results in their city. The police detained the woman, and now authorities say she will face up to seven years in prison.

On cultural updates, starting from the 29th of June until the 21st of July, two Polish directors will show their plays at the 78th annual Festival d'Avignon in France. The Festival d'Avignon is the leading event in the theater world. Krzysztof Warlikowski and Marta Górnicka will have nine different stages during the festival. Warlikowski's leading show will be Elizabeth Costello, a story based on the works of Nobel Prize-winning author John Maxwell Coetzee. Górnicka will present a choir show titled Mothers: A Song for Wartime, depicting Ukranians’ war experiences. The choir will include Ukrainian and Polish women from ages nine to seventy-one.

We want to invite you to take a look at one of Rorshok's other projects. The Daily Knowledge is a daily pocket newspaper that comes out Monday through Friday. It is in our Ourzine format, a little booklet that you have to print in order to read. In the Daily Knowledge ourzine you’ll find a collection of interesting newsletters and selected articles that take about an hour to read. Visit rorshok.com/ourzines/thedailyknowledge/ to find the latest editions. The link will also be in the show notes.

Do zobaczenia!