POLAND: No Troops to Gaza & more – 19th Feb 2026

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 19th of February twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Kicking off this episode, on Tuesday, the 17th, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland won’t be sending troops to Gaza and won’t be putting any money into projects there. He added that the country has its own security priorities and needs to focus on investing at home.

He also said the government has no plans to join the US Board of Peace set up by US President Donald Trump. If Poland shows up at the meeting in Washington, it would only be as an observer, not a full member. This initiative has sparked criticism because Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, and Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, are on the guest list. Meanwhile, President Karol Nawrocki said he thinks Poland taking part could be a good move and his foreign policy adviser will attend the first session on his behalf.

To read more about this story, follow the link in the show notes!

On Monday, the 16th, Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister, criticized Jarosław Kaczyński, the Leader of the Law and Justice Party, for saying that the EU’s SAFE defense fund, a program that offers low-interest loans to EU members to strengthen their military, would put Poland under the German boot.

Sikorski said Germany is Poland’s ally in NATO and that the program would actually strengthen Poland’s security. He added that the bill only sets up a mechanism to manage the funds and that Poland could get billions in low-interest defense loans, which would support the domestic arms industry.

Kaczyński, however, responded that the scheme reflects a German-led vision of Europe and threatens Polish independence.

On Wednesday, the 18th, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, the Minister of Climate and Environment, announced that she and several MPs are leaving the Poland twenty fifty Party to start a new parliamentary club called Centrum.

They want more freedom to do their work —to be more independent of the party— and to follow through on the promises they made during the twenty twenty-three campaign when they were members of Poland twenty fifty. They said that the split is about freedom to act and work effectively, not chasing personal positions.

The Centrum club will focus on making decisions democratically, and giving all members an equal say.

Hennig-Kloska said they already informed PM Tusk and promised to keep cooperating with the government, planning to join the coalition on the 15th of October.

In business news, on Monday, the 16th, the Ministry of State Assets said that despite earlier plans to privatize state companies, the government won’t move forward with them.

Jacek Sasin, the former Minister of State Assets, had previously said the government planned to privatize ten or more state firms on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, including major companies, and warned this could weaken the economy.

The Ministry said that strategic companies like Grupa Azoty, Poland’s largest chemical company, are growing and undergoing reforms.

Wojciech Balczun, the Minister of State Assets, added that past examples show that state firms can sell shares to the public to raise funds and expand, while the government keeps full control.

On Tuesday, the 17th, Piotr Trudnowski, an expert on civil society at the Centrum Analiz Klubu Jagiellońskiego, wrote a piece saying that Poland is facing a severe demographic crisis.

He wrote that in twenty twenty-five, the country saw far more deaths than births, with a negative population balance of 168,000 people, which is equivalent to wiping out the population of a mid-sized city in just one year.

Trudnowski added that despite generous family policies, public interventions alone won’t stop the decline. He suggested a bigger mindset change, pushing for more family support, fighting loneliness, and adjusting to society’s shifts to stop the population from shrinking.

To read the full article, check out the link in the show notes!

On Tuesday, the 17th, the government approved a new plan to reform the State Labor Inspectorate. Labor courts will now have more power to turn freelance or temporary contracts into regular employment contracts. If an inspector decides a contract should change, the decision will be put on hold until a regional inspector or the labor court reviews it.

Regional inspectors will handle problems in different ways such as issuing orders, confirming or denying that someone is an employee, or taking the case to court.

Employers and workers will also be able to change their contracts so they clearly show whether they are regular workers or freelancers, and inspectors will make sure these changes are done correctly.

The reform also protects workers from being punished or fired because of an inspector’s decision.

On Monday, the 16th, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection started investigating HBO Europe.

The investigation concerns HBO changing the list of compatible devices for HBO Max without warning and without clearly explaining the technical requirements. As a result, some people could lose access to HBO on devices that were previously compatible with the service, even if they’re still paying for their subscription.

The Office said this could force customers to buy new devices and make it hard to know if their device will work when they sign up. The agency is also looking at HBO’s terms, which don’t promise that the service will keep working on all devices for the whole subscription.

If HBO is found guilty, it could face fines up to ten percent of its revenue per violation and may have to refund unfair charges to its customers.

Speaking of investigations, on Wednesday, the 18th, courts began the trial of Andrzej Jeż, the Bishop in Tarnów, southern Poland. Prosecutors accuse him of reporting too late to authorities about sexual abuse of minors by two priests in his diocese.

This is the first case in Poland where a bishop faces trial over handling abuse cases. Bishop Jeż denied the charges, saying he often learned about the crimes and followed both church and civil procedures. He apologized to the victims and condemned pedophilia as completely unacceptable.

Prosecutors, however, say the church had reliable information earlier and should have reported it immediately.

The court scheduled the next hearing for the 2nd of March.

On Tuesday, the 17th, the new rules for labeling loose fruits and vegetables in markets came into effect. From now on, they must show the flag of the country of origin, in addition to the usual written information. Products already on shelves before this date that don’t have these meet these requirements can still be sold.

The Agriculture Ministry says this will make it easier for consumers to know where their food comes from and help them choose.

Poland had already issued similar rules for potatoes in twenty nineteen and loose meat in twenty twenty . Retailers are worried that adding flags could make things more expensive because of printing new labels, extra staff work, and updating store systems. It could also confuse shoppers and just repeat the information that Polish Product labels already show.

Big stores might spend up to seventeen million złoty, about four million dollars, to implement the new labeling.

Also on Tuesday, the 17th, Poland, Germany, and France announced plans to create direct train connections between their countries.

Dariusz Klimczak, the Infrastructure Minister, met with his German and French counterparts, along with Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister, and they signed a deal to cooperate on trains, roads, and shipping. The deal will focus on making transport more resilient, supporting military movement, and funding infrastructure.

The Polish rail company PKP will cooperate with Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF on improving safety and quality for passengers and freight.

Closing with sports, on Wednesday, the 18th, Łukasz Szeliga, the head of the Polish Paralympic Committee, said Poland might boycott the Winter Paralympics opening ceremony after the International Paralympic Committee allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their flags.

Szeliga criticized the committee for not doing enough to stop them, saying that, given Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, athletes from these countries shouldn’t compete under their national symbols.

The Polish Paralympic Committee hasn’t made a final decision on the boycott yet.

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

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