Poland and Baltic States

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Poland, fight for the rights.

2 Nov 2020

Anti-government protests triggered by the tightening of Poland’s strict abortion law took place.

People in many cities again disregarded a virus-control restriction limiting public gatherings to no more than five people. Marches, some of them held in silence, were organized Sunday in the cities of Szczecin, Wroclaw, Krakow, Lodz, but not in the Polish capital of Warsaw, where some 100,000 protested Friday.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles, mainly young, have been protesting daily against the right-wing government and the ruling Law and Justice party since the country’s constitutional court ruled Oct.22 to overturn a provision of Poland’s abortion law that permitted abortions of fetuses with congenital defects.

Polonia, Duda confermato presidente.

12 Jul 2020

Per una manciata di voti, poco meno di mezzo milione di preferenze, il conservatore Andrzej Duda ha vinto il ballottaggio alle presidenziali polacche. Il capo dello Stato uscente ha ricevuto il sostegno del 51,08% degli elettori, mentre il liberale moderato Rafal Trzaskowski il 48,92.
Se si analizza la cartina del voto si scopre che il Paese slavo è letteralmente spaccato in due: le campagne contro le città; le regioni più arretrate sud-orientali contro quelle centro-occidentali; gli anziani contro i giovani.

John Paul II key figure of 20th century.

18 May 2020

Monday marked exactly 100 years since Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła, who in 1978 became Pope John Paul II, was born in the southern Polish town of Wadowice.

In a special message to mark the anniversary, President Andrzej Duda said that John Paul II, who led the Roman Catholic Church until his death in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014, was a “defender of fundamental moral values and the Christian identity of Europe.”

The Polish-born pope “built bridges in a world troubled by divisions and conflicts,” Duda also said.

He added that John Paul II’s “teachings and testimony still touch the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world, providing an inspiration for many religious, social, scientific and cultural initiatives.”

Duda also said in his message that Karol Wojtyła was a man of deep faith who “looked ahead with hope into the future of Poland, Europe and the world.”

While “shaping this future, we will always remember the greatest among us—the pope of freedom and solidarity,” Duda said.

Source: Polish Radio

Twitter

Poland, 10th anniversary of Smolensk disaster.

10 Apr 2020

Poland has marked the 10th anniversary of the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others. A large number of Poles, including President Andrzej Duda, suspect that the crash was not caused by pilot error, as concluded in an investigation by Poland’s previous centrist government, but by foul play. “After 10 years, it’s difficult to say anything or predict whether the case can ever be resolved,” said Duda, after visiting Kaczynski’s grave in Krakow. “We don’t have basic evidence, the wreckage is still in Russia, the black boxes are still in Russia.” Poland’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had renewed demands that Moscow returned the wreckage of the ageing Tupolev aircraft. “There are no provisions in international law that allow Russia to withhold Polish property,” it said.

Russian authorities said that there is no evidence of an explosion on board the plane, as some in Poland allege. Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that crew errors led to the accident. “The aircraft collided with a tree trunk at a height of about 11m,” it said. “As a result of the detachment of part of a wing, the aircraft began to rotate and after a few seconds fell to the ground in an upside down position.” President Kaczynsky and 95 highest-ranking officials were on their way to commemorate the Katyn massacre. The Katyn forest, alongside Mednoye, Kharkiv, Bykivnia and Kuropaty, is where a terrifying act of mass executions was carried out by the Soviet authorities in the spring of 1940. It took more than 22.000 lives of prisoners of war and imprisoned civilians, members of the country’s elite.

Poland’s ruling conservatives win general election.

14 Oct 2019

Poland’s ruling conservatives secured a second term in power. The victory by the Law and Justice (PiS) party followed a campaign focused on a raft of new welfare measures coupled with attacks on Western values.

Terming the victory a “huge success,” PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said his party had “obtained a mandate to continue our good change … to continue to change Poland.”

Since it took office in 2015, the PiS has in many ways upended Polish politics by limiting liberal democracy through a string of controversial court reforms that have stoked tension with the EU, as well as through its monopolization of public media, among other measures.

The PiS scored 43.59 percent of the popular vote, for 235 seats. Up to now it controlled 239 of the 460 seats in the lower house of parliament.

The opposition Civic Coalition (KO) scored 27.40 percent support for 134 seats. It draws support mainly from urban voters upset by the PiS’s divisive politics, controversial judicial reforms and graft scandals.

The PiS lost control of the Senate, or upper house, taking 48 of the 100 seats, something analysts said would provide a check on the party’s legislative drives. Turnout tallied at 61.74 percent, the highest since Poland shed communism in 1989.

Polish anti-defamation bill.

6 Feb 2018

The bill that has angered Israel by imposing a jail term for anyone who accuses Poland of being complicit in the Holocaust.

The US State Department has urged Poland “to reevaluate the legislation in light of its potential impact on the principle of free speech.”

Reacting to President Duda’s move, Israel‘s foreign ministry said it hoped that “changes and corrections” would be made to the Polish anti-defamation law.

In Poland, the new rules are seen as a way of fighting the use of the phrase “Polish death camps”, which many say implies the country’s involvement in the Holocaust.

Poland has long fought the use of such phrases, which have often appeared in foreign media in relation to Nazi German-run extermination camps located in occupied Polish territory during World War II. Poland’s ruling conservatives have said such phrases distort history.

Radio Poland

Battle of Grunwald brought to life.

15 Jul 2017

Some 3,000 actors have brought to life the 1410 Battle of Grunwald on its 607th anniversary to a crowd of 60,000, making it one of Europe’s largest medieval re-enactments.

King of Poland Wladyslaw Jagiello commanded an allied Polish-Lithuanian army to defeat the Teutonic Order, previously considered invincible.

It is considered to be one of the most glorious and significant military victories in Polish history.

Depesza Prezydenta RP do Przewodniczącego Rady Europejskiej.

10 Mar 2017

Верховная Рада приняла совместную с Польшей декларацию об ответственности СССР за начало войны.

20 Oct 2016

Украинский парламент принял Декларацию памяти и солидарности сейма Республики Польша и Верховной Рады Украины по событиям Второй мировой войны. Об этом говорится в сообщении, опубликованном на сайте украинского парламента.

Ранее планировалось принятие декларации парламентами трех стран – Украины, Польши и Литвы. Однако из текста было исключено упоминание о сейме Литвы в связи с формированием в этой стране нового состава парламента, передает “Интерфакс”.

В декларации отмечается “великая историческая жертва народов Польши и Украины ради защиты свободы и независимости“. “Представители сейма Республики Польша и Верховной Рады Украины совместно и одновременно принимают эту Декларацию памяти и солидарности, чтобы почтить память миллионов жертв, которые понесли наши народы во время Второй мировой войны, и осудить внешних агрессоров, которые пытались уничтожить нашу независимость”, – говорится в документе.

Ответственность за начало Второй мировой войны в декларации возлагается на нацистскую Германию и Советский Союз. По мнению авторов документа, пакт Молотова – Риббентропа, заключенный в 1939 году “между двумя тоталитарными режимами – коммунистическим Советским Союзом и нацистской Германией”, “привел к взрыву 1 сентября Второй мировой войны, вызванной агрессией Германии, к которой 17 сентября присоединился Советский Союз“.

“Следствием этих событий была оккупация Польши Германией и Советским Союзом и массовые репрессии против наших народов. Те события привели также к принятию в Ялте в 1945 году решений, которые начали новый этап порабощения всей Восточной и Центральной Европы, длившийся полвека”, говорится в декларации.

Polska, Mandaty w Sejmie i Senacie.

27 Oct 2015

Sejm

Prawo i Sprawiedliwość	37,58 procent głosów	235 mandatów
Platforma Obywatelska	24,09	138
Kukiz ’15	8,81	42
Nowoczesna	7,69	28
Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe	5,13	16
Mniejszość niemiecka		1

Zjednoczona Lewica	7,55%
KORWiN	4,76
Razem	3,62

Frekwencja wyborcza wyniosła 50,92 procent.

Senat

Prawo i Sprawiedliwość	61 mandatów
Platforma Obywatelska	34
Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe	1

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