POLAND: The legalization of abortion & more – 18th July 2024

TRANSCRIPTION

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 18th of July twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

After long discussions, on Friday the 12th, the Polish parliament finally held the session to vote on the legalization of abortion. However, the majority of MPs rejected the proposal to legalize abortion within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. There was only a three-vote difference: 215 MPs from the ruling coalition parties supported the proposal, while it was rejected by 218 MPs from the main opposition, which included Law and Justice, the far-right Confederation Party, and the Polish People’s Party, which is a ruling coalition partner with Christian and centrist beliefs. Donald Tusk, the prime minister and leader of the Civic Platform, started a disciplinary investigation over three MPs from his party who voted against abortion since the parliament needed only those three votes to pass the law. He said this was not an ordinary vote, and all MPs from his party had to support it. Aleksandra Gajewska, the deputy minister of family, said that it was a very bad day for women. After the result, the Left Party announced that they would resubmit the bill to vote for the second time.

In the same session, the parliament also decided to lift the immunity of Marcin Romanowski, a Law and Justice MP, and afterward, security officials detained him because he was involved in the misuse of public funds between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty-three when he was deputy minister of justice during the Law and Justice Government. The misuse included the Justice Fund, a state fund to compensate people falsely convicted for crimes they didn’t commit. Security officials said Romanowski used the fund for personal gain and also allocated it to some organizations affiliated with the Law and Justice Party. Previously, a parliamentary commission said the Law and Justice party used the Justice Fund to buy Pegasus Spyware and observe politicians from the opposition. After the developments, Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice said that the time will come for the ruling coalition to account for the unjust detention of Romanowski.

However, all parties except the Confederation Party supported another parliamentary decision. 414 MPs out of 432 voted to recognize the Soviet Union’s genocide against Crimean Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group and nation native to Crimea. The genocide took place in nineteen forty-four, when the Soviet Union deported 200,000 Crimean Tatars from the Crimean Peninsula to Central Asia. During the deportation, Soviet Union soldiers killed 10,000 Tatars, while 40,000 of them died after deportation. The Polish parliament emphasized that Poland sympathizes with the Crimean Tatars, who were the victims of genocide and persecution. The decision also emphasized Russia's illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in twenty fourteen.

Speaking of Russia, on Thursday, the 18th, the government intensified its investigation of companies that do business in Poland to see if they violated the trade prohibition sanction with Belarus and Russia. The EU and Poland previously imposed economic sanctions on both countries in a few areas, such as finance, military, and energy sectors, after Belarus and Russia supported the invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty-two twenty twenty-two. Although it is strictly forbidden for companies in Poland to do business with Belarus and Russia, the previous Law and Justice government fined only two companies that breached the law. On the other hand, the new Civic Platform government has so far fined fifty-one different companies over 650 thousand dollars.

Moving on to foreign policies, on Sunday the 14th, Polish leaders condemned the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump. Donald Tusk, the prime minister, said violence is never the answer to political differences in a democracy and expressed his condolences to the victims. On the other hand, President Andrzej Duda said the incident is shocking, not only to America but also to the entire free and democratic world, and he wished Trump a fast recovery. Tomasz Siemoniak, the Minister of the Interior and Administration, said Poland will analyze the assassination attempt to learn more and improve the security of top Polish politicians, as the number of attempts has been increasing. Only last month, another assassination attempt took place against the Slovakian prime minister.

On Tuesday the 16th, Maxim Ryzhenkov, Foreign Minister of Belarus, said Belarus is ready to host any Polish delegation to resolve border issues with Poland. Poland and Belarus have been in conflict for years because Belarusian officials allegedly motivate illegal immigrants from the Middle East to rush into the Polish border to destabilize Poland and the EU. However, in recent days, Polish officials said they would close borders with Belarus entirely, and Lithuania and Latvia may join Poland in this decision. After this statement, Pavel Latushka, a Belarusian opposition leader exiled in Poland, said that the Belarusian government fears that the total closure of borders would harm the Belarusian economy. Latushka added that the Belarusian government should be more cooperative with Poland.

Continuing with international relations, Radosław Sikorski, the minister of foreign affairs, spoke to the public, saying Poland is ready to be a mediator between the US and China in their conflict. However, he also said that if China forces Poland to choose between them and America, Poland will choose America. Sikorski also said he wishes Donald Trump would become president to convince Putin to end the war with Ukraine.

Moving on, on Tuesday the 16th, authorities detained a thirty-five-year-old Nigerian man who carried 2.5 pounds (or just over one kilogram) of cocaine in his stomach and was trying to smuggle the drug into Poland. The man came to the country on a plane from Paris, and his suspicious behavior attracted the attention of airport security. The security conducted a drug test, and the man admitted that he had swallowed eighty-five capsules, which are worth 280 thousand dollars in the black market. Now the Nigerian man can face up to twenty years of imprisonment.

Speaking of foreigners, on Friday the 12th, the Nomada Association opened a new free counseling center for refugees and immigrants in Wrocław, a city in the west of Poland. The association will offer free legal and psychological assistance to non-EU nationals in the center. The services will include residency legalization, legal consultations, and information services. Michał Brokos, a board member of the association, said that often foreigners come to Poland and fall victim to scams by employment agencies. These individuals experience exploitation and forced labor, and come to the Nomada Association for help.

On a positive note, the government will fund the new renovation project of the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Research Station with ten million dollars of financial support. The station has operated since nineteen seventy-seven, and it is the only Polish research center on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica.

In unrelated news, on Friday the 12th, authorities continued to close down bathing areas in the country due to contamination by cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that produce harmful toxins that contaminate water supplies, posing risks to human and animal health. The last closures took place in Pomerania province in eight different bathing areas. Authorities warned people not to enter any body of water that has signs that say no swimming. Also, the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate recommended that people check their website for available and safe bathing areas before they go swimming. You can follow the link in the show notes to check out this website!

From the 12th of August to the 18th of August, Poland will host the Tour de Pologne, the biggest cycling competition in Poland. Anyone who wants to participate can join the competition and cycle the 1,050-kilometer-long route, which starts in Wroclaw and ends in Karpacz, a city in southwestern Poland.

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

We want you to love these updates even more than you already do. We prepared a very short survey that will take you just minutes to fill in and is linked in the shownotes. We know what you are saying, "Dude, I'm driving!" or "I'm cooking and my hands are covered in food goo!". I promise that it will only take a few minutes and we would really appreciate it! Your feedback helps us keep the updates coming your way. Hope to hear from you soon!

Do zobaczenia!