POLAND: Results & more – 13th Jun 2024

TRANSCRIPTION

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 13th of June twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off this edition with the European elections. On Sunday, the 9th, the EU-friendly Civic Platform, the largest member of the ruling coalition and Prime Minister Tusk’s party, secured first place with thirty-seven percent of the votes. The Law and Justice Party, the Eurosceptic main opposition, ended up with thirty-six percent.

For the first time since twenty fifteen, the Law and Justice Party hasn't been able to get first place. Similarly, the Third Way Alliance, the ruling coalition composed of the Polish People’s Party or PSL and Poland twenty fifty, could not secure third place like in the last local elections. The Alliance received only seven percent of votes, a drop of 7% compared to the last local elections. More people have supported the far-right Eurosceptic Confederation party, now getting 12%, from 7% in the last election. Lastly, the Left Party, another member of the ruling coalition, received six percent of the votes.

The European Parliament has 720 seats, and Poland occupies fifty-three. The ruling coalition consisting of the Civic Platform, The Third Way, and the Left secured twenty-seven seats while the opposition parties received twenty-six —a tiny one-seat difference.

According to the election results across Europe, nationalistic parties that don’t support the European Unoin won more seats than EU supporters, and as a result, French President Emmanuel Macron called for an early election in France.

Meanwhile, two former prime ministers won seats in the European Parliament. Centrist politician Ewa Kopacz, the prime minister during the rule of the Civic Platform between twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen, received 190,000 votes. Similarly, Beata Szydło, former Law and Justice PM between twenty fifteen and twenty seventeen, received 285 thousand. However, surprisingly, people also voted for far-right politician Grzegorz Braun for an MP position. Braun is famous for blowing out Jewish Hanukkah candles in the Polish parliament in twenty twenty-three, and last week he also removed a Ukrainian flag waving next to the Polish flag.

More about elections, as Bosak, the far-right Confederation Party’s co-leader, said that his party aims to replace Law and Justice, which has been losing votes every day. Bosak said that Jarosław Kaczyński, the Law and Justice’s leader, is already seventy-four years old and cannot do his job properly due to his old age. He said that because the leaders of the Confederation Party are in their forties, they could fulfill their responsibilities. He added that they would not form any alliances with Law and Justice and that his party has already started preparing for the twenty twenty-five presidential elections.

Going back to the EU, on Thursday, the 13th, the Polish foreign ministry said that most of the Union’s members agreed on Radosław Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland, to become the new commissioner for defense of the EU. This will improve Poland’s position in the Union’s policies since he will be responsible for the security of the EU. News outlets also said that the government expects Sikorski to be the commissioner for enlargement, that is, accepting new countries into the EU.

In other news, two weeks ago, we told you about an illegal immigrant who stabbed a Polish soldier with a hand-made spear at the border of Belarus. He was part of a group of people trying to illegally cross the border to Poland. Unfortunately, the border guard didn’t catch the offender who went back to Belarus. On Thursday, the 6th, the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw announced that the stabbed soldier had died despite all medical efforts. Tusk expressed his condolences to the family of the deceased while the Ministry of Defense declared a day of mourning. Radosław Sikorski, the foreign minister, firmly demanded that Belarusian authorities identify the killer and hand him over to Poland, otherwise Belarus may face consequences, which he did not specify.

On the same day, the military police detained three soldiers who fired a warning shot at illegal immigrants in April. Tomasz Janeczek, the military prosecutor general, said that he supervised the case about soldiers abusing their power and signed a document to detain them. However, Janeczek added that he knew the details of the case only from journalists' reports and made the wrong decision.

Opposition parties think that the detention was wrong because the number of illegal crossings from Belarus is rising day by day, bringing incidents such as an illegal immigrant killing a Polish soldier. Therefore, they think soldiers have the right to use weapons on illegal immigrants.

Grzegorz Braun, the Confederation Party leader, said that the minister of defense should resign. Similarly, the Law and Justice party said that all government members, including the prime minister, should resign because they didn’t fulfill their responsibilities properly. Tusk said that people’s concerns were valid and that he decided to fire the military prosecutor, and cancel the proceedings against soldiers. However, firing a prosecutor general requires President Duda’s approval, which is expected in the next few days.

The Institute for Social Research and Markets (or IBRiS) published a survey showing that nearly all Poles, eighty-five percent of participants out of one hundred, support the use of weapons to stop illegal immigrants.

Speaking of immigration, on Monday, the 10th, President Andrzej Duda signed a bill to extend the legal stay of Ukrainian refugees in Poland until the 30th of September, twenty twenty-five. The extension will include Ukrainians’ access to health, family, and social benefits, as well as the right to stay in collective housing facilities. Also, Ukrainians will be able to receive child benefits if their children are part of the Polish education system. Ukrainians can also receive free Polish classes.

More updates on the student protest came up this week. On the 24th of May, students at the University of Warsaw started a protest to condemn Israel for killing civilians in Gaza. On Wednesday, the 12th, for the first time, police clashed with the students. Authorities said that the president of the university asked police to intervene because the protest was blocking the campus entrance for pregnant women who were receiving treatment in the medical part of the university. Protesting students demand that the university cut all its contact with Israeli academics and its cooperation with any institutions possibly funding the Israeli military.

This week, disturbing news from Legnica, a city in the southwest of the country, made the headlines. On Tuesday, the 11th, authorities started an investigation into a kindergarten in Legnica over sexual abuse claims. Some parents said that kindergarten personnel beat seven boys and molested them for several months. Parents said they learned about the incident from their children's statements.

On Saturday, the 8th, as the summer started, plant experts warned people not to approach Sosnowski's hogweed plant, which grows in gardens and forests. It blooms from June to September, and contact with it can lead to skin redness, blisters, and inflammation. Experts said even approaching the plant without contact is dangerous because the plant spreads essential oil vapors through the air.

And to wrap up this edition, some sports news. On Thursday, the 13th, Poland finished the twenty twenty-four European Athletics Championships with two gold, two silver, and two bronze medals. Natalia Kaczmarek, a runner, won a gold medal in the women's 400m track, while Wojciech Nowicki earned another gold for Poland in the men's hammer throw. When it comes to football, Poland’s national team will compete in the famous European tournament Euro twenty twenty-four, starting on the 16th of June. The country will try to beat the Netherlands, Austria, and France. The Polish Foreign Minister published a security guide for Poles who wanted to watch the matches in Germany.

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

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