POLAND: New Deal for the Polish Navy & more – 31st Dec 2024

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 31st of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Kicking off this edition, on Monday, the 30th, Poland's National Electoral Commission approved the Law and Justice party's financial report for its twenty twenty-three parliamentary election campaign. In August twenty twenty-four, the commission rejected the report after discovering the party exceeded spending limits and received funds from unauthorized sources. As a result, the commission fined the party and reduced its state funding.

However, on the 11th of December, the Supreme Court canceled the rejection and the penalties. In response, the commission requested that all judges be excluded from the Supreme Court in future electoral matters, as the EU and the European Court of Justice have questioned the court's legitimacy and independence in the past. They believe that Law and Justice gained control over the justice system after reforming it in twenty seventeen.

On another note, some defense policies. On Friday, the 27th, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Defense Minister, announced a 240 million dollar deal to build a new rescue ship for the Polish Navy. It will have specialized equipment, such as underwater vehicles and hydrolocation systems to support submarine rescue operations.

Poland will build the ship domestically to support the shipbuilding industry and create jobs, with a launch set for twenty twenty-seven. Kosiniak-Kamysz also said that there should be more international naval ships in the Baltic Sea to secure it against the Russian fleet.

Also on Friday, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, signed an application to request seven billion dollars in financial support from the EU's National Recovery Plan, aimed to help countries recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. Poland has already submitted five out of nine planned applications and has received over sixteen billion dollars so far. The government expects the total investment from the EU in Poland's economy to reach twenty-two billion dollars.

Things aren't looking too good for the national media. On Tuesday, the 24th, Warner Bros. Discovery, an American multinational mass media company that owns New Polish Television or TVN, one of the largest television networks in Poland, started the process of selling it because the company went into debt due to the high costs of merging the WarnerMedia and Discovery companies. The two potential buyers are Hungarian TV2 Media and Czech Penta Private Funds Group.

TVN employees are worried that the buyers might be connected to the Hungarian government, which recently granted political asylum to Poland’s former Deputy Minister of Justice, who faces corruption allegations. They think that Hungary will influence Polish media independence for its own benefit, despite assurances from Katarzyna Kieli, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, that nothing will change.

On Monday, the 30th, the government announced that Poland's minimum wage will rise to 1,137 dollars per month in twenty twenty-five. Currently, the minimum wage is 1,047 dollars. The minimum hourly rate will increase from seven to eight dollars starting from the 1st of January, twenty twenty-five.

Next up, new laws. On Friday, the 27th, Sławomir Nitras, Poland's sports minister, criticized President Duda for sending a new reform bill for the sports system to the constitutional court for review instead of signing it directly into law, which he saw as an attempt to delay the law. The bill aims to give athletes more influence in sports organizations, especially to increase women's representation in leadership positions and sports committees that are mostly men-dominated. Moreover, it also includes protections for female athletes, such as the right to keep their contract during pregnancy, return to sports without time restrictions, and avoid discrimination in contracts for women with children. Nitras condemned the President for supporting sports officials rather than athletes.

Since we mentioned sports, on Friday, the 27th, MultiSport Foundation, a Polish non-governmental organization promoting physical activity and healthy living, published a report showing that since twenty eighteen, thirty-six percent of Poles have not exercised on a regular basis. Many older people avoid exercise due to chronic illnesses, while adults cite lack of time. Dr. Joanna Gutral, a psychologist and psychotherapist, said that modern life and digitalization are the main reasons for inactivity. She added that the government should provide education on the benefits of exercise and create environments for age-appropriate activities.

Meanwhile in foreign relations, on Friday, the 27th, Paweł Wroński, the foreign ministry spokesman, announced that the Polish government bought a building near the White House in Washington for over twenty million dollars. The building, previously owned by Johns Hopkins University, will become the new Polish embassy headquarters after a four-year renovation. Wroński said that the government took advantage of falling property prices in Washington and bought the building in a central location to bring together various Polish diplomatic offices in the city.

In a similar move, the government will open a new embassy in Berlin on the 17th of January, twenty twenty-five, strengthening the partnership between Poland and Germany.

On Monday, the 30th, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, proposed building not only a high-speed rail line connecting major cities like Warsaw, Łódź, and Wrocław but also links to smaller cities to address regional inequality and population decline. In twenty twenty-five, Poland will invest nearly thirty billion dollars in infrastructure to improve connections between cities and boost economic development.

However, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz said that focusing only on big cities would increase regional inequalities. The government and regional authorities will review the proposal and finalize the project in twenty twenty-five.

Speaking of transportation, on Thursday, the 26th, Solaris Bus, a Polish manufacturer of zero-emission electric buses, signed a deal with King County Metro to supply four articulated buses to Seattle, Washington. The buses will have advanced electric drive systems and battery technology, and will be ready for delivery in the second half of twenty twenty-six. Solaris aims to become the leading zero-emission bus supplier in North America.

In an update to a story from a previous show, on Friday, the 27th, President Andrzej Duda signed an amendment officially declaring the 24th of December a public holiday, a proposal the government put forward three weeks ago. Currently, shops in Poland cannot be open every Sunday, just one per month, or an additional Sunday if there is a holiday in the week after that Sunday. Under the new law, shops will be able to open on three Sundays in December instead of the previous two since the government added one more Sunday so people can shop for the holidays.

However, each worker can only work on two of those Sundays, giving them time to rest and prepare for celebrations. The law is now under review by the Constitutional Tribunal and will take effect on the 1st of February, twenty twenty-five.

While the holidays are a time of joy and celebration, for some they are a period of hardship and struggle. Currently, two and a half million people in Poland live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, according to a November report by the Federation of Polish Food Banks, one in five people in the country throws away food like vegetable salads, bread, and cold cuts after the holidays.

To address this issue, local volunteers set up community fridges where people can leave food for those in need, including senior citizens and students. This practice is becoming more popular, especially during the holidays.

If you want to help out, check out the list of community fridges with the link in the show notes.

And to wrap up this edition, on Monday, the 30th, the Center for Public Opinion Research published interesting statistics on how Poles evaluate this year. According to the report, sixty percent of the 915 respondents said twenty twenty-four was a good year for them personally and for their families. Meanwhile, fifty-three percent of citizens thought twenty twenty-four was a good year in terms of their work. However, only thirty-three percent felt that this year was good for Poland. Overall, respondents viewed twenty twenty-four more positively than twenty twenty-two and twenty twenty-one, but less favorably than twenty twenty-three.

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

Before leaving we want to wish you a happy and exciting twenty twenty-five! Thank you for sticking with us, sharing the podcast, and being such an amazing part of our community. We’ll be here as long as you’re enjoying the episodes, so if you have any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on how we can get better, don’t hesitate to reach out—shoot us an email at info@rorshok.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Do zobaczenia!