News / PO-PiS again neck and neck [248]


This has always been the assumption, but I think they would demand the head of Kaczynski as the price of a coalition. They would know that it would be electoral suicide to prop up another Kaczynski government - look what happened last time round.


The problem is that PiS really don't want Solidarna Polska to make it. If they do, Ziobro (who was humiliated by Kaczynski) is not going to support PiS blindly - he is a smart, smart man, and he won't hand over his 30 seats without getting significant concessions.

It's worth pointing out that if the election result produces a close result between PO and PiS, it's not inconceivable that PO could offer significant concessions in order to get the liberal part of PiS to break away in order to form a government.

News / PO-PiS again neck and neck [248]


Yet more disaster for PiS. The party should be very worried - PO are polling at 6 year lows, yet they haven't increased their poll ratings at all. This shows that PO voters are not defecting to PiS, which is what PiS need to win an election.

I've said it and I'll say it until I'm sick - PiS cannot get above 30% of the vote with Kaczynski as leader.


On the basis of this poll, PO win again. Remember the cordon sanitaire needs to be broken in order for PiS to win.


43% has never been achieved in the Third Republic. Even the overwhelming PO win in 2007 only gave them 41.5% of the vote, and PO aren't leading an unpopular coalition.

News / Krystyna Pawłowicz and the 'marsz szmata' (slut walk) [52]


The one that does the employing, I guess.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


Public knowledge? Is it really, or is it just mentioned online behind a veil of anonymity?


I was quoting the Dear Leader. I see that you exhibit similar sorts of behaviour, accusing everyone but PiS of being this, that and the next thing.


I suspect that Harry would pick up a gun to defend Poland far faster than you would.

News / PO-PiS again neck and neck [248]

Could be any - even Solidarna Polska might be persuaded in exchange for power, although it seems unlikely that they'll get into the Sejm.

A rump PiS without Kaczynski is also a possibility.

News / Palikot - too liberal/modern for Poland? [197]

Not just the middle classes. Many people (including one on this very forum!) demand that their employees go self employed.

Perhaps he would also like to explain why it is fair for huge wealthy farmers to pay KRUS (which is peanuts) while my neighbour who runs a very small therapy business has to pay over 1000zl a month?

News / Poland's Nationalists hold congress [132]

What rights? I'd love to know what rights the Polish minority in Weimar Germany had that ordinary Germans didn't.

As for Merkel being a "Marxist Commie" - dear oh dear, will you stop at nothing with your lies and propaganda?


Who are you to deny people the right to say what they are?

USA, Canada / Would like to move back to Poland from New York after living in USA for 20 years. [155]


They can, but they also have to charge their customers 23% extra in Poland.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

Likewise. As with many others.

And this is why PO will win the next election, because for everyone - SLD, PSL, Palikot - it makes far more sense to return PO to power than it does to let PiS near Government again.

News / PO-PiS again neck and neck [248]


Excellent. We can see that the likely option of PO/SLD + one other shall win.

PiS are still electorally nowhere and still well short of what they need.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


Polonius, we know that you're politically naive, but since when has politics ever been anything but unsavoury, shady and conspriatorial?


Could be, if there was any political support for changing it. There isn't.


Are you suggesting that the legal Constitution of the Republic of Poland was implemented fraudulently? And if so, why haven't you gone straight to the public prosecutor?


Why don't you report them to the CBA if there's corruption?


Remember - if you're not with PiS, then you must be ZOMO.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


As far as I understand it, it's perfectly legal in Polish politics to bring down Governments. Didn't PiS just try recently to do just that?

As for Olszewski's government - it was always going to be hard to run a Government with such a messy political outcome as the 1991 election.


I never knew Ironside was such a supporter of gay marriage! :)

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


So Lech Kaczynski was hand picked? Hmmm.


I've got several books on Solidarność and none of them mention anything about a "real" leader of Solidarity. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to why Walesa was negotiating then?

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


What's wrong with the Constitution?


That government was shaky enough as it was. You do remember that the 1st placed party in the 1991 election got something like 12% of the national vote, right? It's not as if Olszewski's government was anything special in the way that it fell apart.


Ho ho ho. Lech Kaczynski was part of the Round Table talks - are we finally seeing an admission that he was handpicked?


If Walesa didn't, then who did?

Still, Ironside, while you fight for the IV RP from afar, we'll carry on making the real Polish State a better place to live.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

Which is tragic, but I guess it avoids the usage of schools as propaganda platforms.

News / Palikot - too liberal/modern for Poland? [197]


No, you really don't. You compared flat taxes to poll taxes when the two are like chalk and cheese.

Just admit your mistake and move on - no point in trying to save face now.


There is also a lot of social democracy in their policies. Generally speaking, the best social democratic governments tend to be pro-business, funnily enough.


Why is cutting taxes for the rich a bad thing? As for the poor - it can easily be avoided through tax thresholds, or the Polish approach of allowing people to apply tax credits to their end of year tax return.


I think you'll find that the poster in question also supports personal responsibility. If you take the choice to take your money out of ZUS, then you also should have to take responsibility if you have nothing later in life. Works for me - I'd keep my money in ZUS personally, but others may choose otherwise.


Why wouldn't you give people genuine freedom?

It's no secret that the ZUS contributions being paid today are being used to support the this generation of thieves that robbed Poland blind.

News / Palikot - too liberal/modern for Poland? [197]


Which is why describing PiS as Catholic-Socialist is the best possible label. And there - fundamentally - is nothing wrong with that, as it's very appealing to Polish voters. The problem is that the centrist electorate who might be persuaded by such a party wants nothing to do with the extreme positions that PiS have taken.


Erm, the poll tax wasn't a flat tax, it was a set amount. A flat tax takes the same percentage from everyone.


I wasn't talking about foreigners. I was talking about people in their mid to late 20's who face having to find a significant amount of money every month that their business is open regardless of income.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


What actually makes it far worse is that very little is taught about the post-war era, despite it being of massive importance.


But but...THEY DIDN'T HAVE COUNTLESS HOURS ABOUT THE PIAST KINGS!

News / Palikot - too liberal/modern for Poland? [197]


Indeed, I wonder why Barney thinks it's appropriate to tax small businesses 1000zl and counting before they even earn one zloty.

News / Poland's Nationalists hold congress [132]

Kaczynski wanted to remove their exemption, I recall. Some bollocks about how it's not fair that national minorities in Poland get that, while economic minorities in Germany don't.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


The problem was that the curriculum wasn't actually upgraded at all.


I would absolutely love to see some references to that, given the vast amount of opposition within cultural circles to PiS.


Me neither. I've got a few friends involved with the Arts and they are all absolutely anti-PiS to the core.

Perhaps Polonius is referring to IV RP types, who of course flourished then as they were rewarded for their political reliability.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

If I recall rightly, wasn't this pretty much a given regardless of who went into power at that point?

News / Poles v Tusk's school 'reform' [58]


Do you realise that many people signing this have no idea what they're talking about, or don't even have children?

Perhaps you might want to explain to us why it's a bad idea.


It just moves everything a year back - it's not a bad thing when you consider how many kids are growing up in difficult family circumstances.

There are, of course, good arguments against this reform - but I doubt that Polonius will actually tell us any. Still, we can but wait.

News / Poles v Tusk's school 'reform' [58]

Polonius, please don't try and discuss things that you know nothing about. It's obvious that you have no idea why this reform is important, nor have you got any idea why it's being done in the first place. The fact that you've somehow twisted "over half a million" to "nearly a million" says it all about your agenda and blatant desire to attack Tusk for the slightest thing.

Let's see -

a) The school programme has already been adjusted to 6 year olds. The "nowa podstawa programowa" already takes into account the needs of 6 year olds in school, and has been designed for them.

b) Many complaints by the parents are quite clearly nonsense. For example - there are complaints that the toilet facilities aren't appropriate. How many of those parents have special child-sized toilets at home? Barely any.

c) The reform shall actually help divide classes according to age, which doesn't happen now. This way, we will avoid the mess of having kids born in January being in the same class as kids born in December - rather they will have less of a gap in classes.

d) Maximum class sizes will also decrease.
e) Poles (by the time they finish their education) are already very old - 24/25 in many cases. This one year helps put them on a more equal footing with their peers in Europe.

f) The conduct of the referendum campaign has been nothing short of ridiculous. I've seen an example where they were trying to convince schools to protest against this reform, despite the fact that it actually provides employment for teachers until we see the benefits of the latest baby boom.

g) Much of this "campaign" has been based on pure hysteria.
h) What about the kids from bad families? Compulsory schooling earlier helps take them away from a disruptive home environment and offers them some sort of stability throughout the day. The start of earlier compulsory schooling also helps families, as the carer can return to full time work faster.

i) Children elsewhere in the world manage to go to school at 4 and 5 - most of my peers and I started at 4. Didn't do us any harm.

j) It's very difficult to find kindergarten spaces in Poland. It's easy to find school places.

Polonius, what experience do you have with elementary education in Poland? Could you perhaps outline why 6 year olds shouldn't go to school?

Study / Tell me about Collegium Civitas (Warsaw)! [34]


Hahaha. No.

Language / Tusk's uvular 'r' when speaking in Polish [49]


Will you stop?

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


Your words.


Why would I?

The IV Republic left behind nothing but broken promises and people.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


Except it wasn't. The two years of PiS Government showed us what really happened - PiS pushed their men into positions of power and left many ordinary people without anything. Remind us why the PiS government conveniently forgot about the promise to "build 3 million flats" when in power? And of course, you seem to have forgotten that Lech Kaczynski was one of those fathers.


There was no coup - it was democracy.


Perhaps because they thought that it wasn't worth dragging up all this stuff yet again for the millionth time, as well as not trusting what was actually in those archives?


No, Polonius. The IV RP wanted to eliminate any opposition to them. Witness the witchhunts and protection of their own.

The whole TVP debacle was all that we needed to know.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]

I don't know Lenka, if you listen to the talk of 'revolution' and so on, it seems clear what they had/have in mind.

News / 4th Polish Republic may re-emerge [244]


Indeed.

Unless we consider that the IV Republic was really about feathering one's nest. After all, the architects of the IV Republic knew all about that from previous times.