History / "Poland's Concentration Camp" ?? [570]


If you want to be technical, to be recognised as sovereign, international law generally provides for some set criteria. You need a permanent population, defined territory, a government and the capability to enter into agreements with others. That was set out by the Montevideo Convention in 1933 and is still the defining criteria. The Polish Government-in-Exile more or less ceased to be recognised quite early, and the PRL was admitted to the United Nations in October 1945 as the legitimate representative of Poland. It met all the criteria of the Montevideo convention, too.

So those camps were Polish, unfortunately.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


The pressure is certainly building, because the insults are growing and growing. It's all too obvious that PiS have adopted the Kremlin strategy of putting people online to abuse and insult the opposition at every turn. The only problem is that this isn't Russia and people aren't buying it ;)

History / "Poland's Concentration Camp" ?? [570]

Actually, Harry is talking about Polish concentration camps, not Nazi ones in occupied Poland.

Yes, Poland had their own.

News / Is Jarosław Kaczyński the new Lech Wałęsa? [74]


He would have to be genuinely liked by a majority of the population for that to happen, rather than being treated as a demi-god by 30% and strongly disliked by the rest.

More to the point, he's doing it because he knows fine well that his hands are theoretically clean when the time comes to repair the damage done by his puppets.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


Everyone knows that it's completely absurd for the President of the Republic to be visiting a minor member of parliament late at night.


Obviously you're struggling to understand it if you can't see how Kaczyński can (with the help of Kukiz) send Duda straight to the State Tribunal.


Every sane person knows that Duda is just a puppet who will certainly enjoy prison life once we get rid of this pro-Putin government.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


I think we all saw how Duda paid a late night visit to Kaczyński.


So, what part of the Constitution do you need explained, given your unfamiliarity with the State Tribunal?


Kaczyński knew exactly what he was doing. He knew Duda owed his Presidency to the Dear Leader Chairman Kaczyński and thus he knew fine well that the choice was either to refuse to obey the TK's ruling or face the wrath of the Dear Leader Chairman.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Yes, please do. She'll be disgusted to see things such as Piotrowicz calling Poland the the PRL in 2016.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


Course not. That's why he pardoned Kamiński instead of respecting the legal process, that's why he refuses to follow the rulings of the TK and so on? We all know he's a puppet, come on.


You're not very familiar with the Polish Constitution, are you?

Kaczyński got him to break the law. Now he's absolutely at his mercy because the charge of "refusing to follow the order of the Constitutional Tribunal" would be easy to stick.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


No, Duda is just a spineless fool who does what he's ordered to do, mainly because he knows that Kaczyński will throw him in front of the State Tribunal if he doesn't comply.

Work / Is it possible to work whilst studying in Poland? [20]

Yup, exactly what happens here, as many of these private universities simply couldn't care less if you attend or not. The problem is that the foreign 'students' don't realise that it's not so easy to get a job at some "uncles" factory because they don't exist.

I know one guy that was working for 5zł an hour in a kebab shop, for instance.

Work / Is it possible to work whilst studying in Poland? [20]


No, not quite. What happens is that they're supposed to have the money to pay for the fees for 1 year, as well as living costs (I don't know the current amount, but it used to be around 5000zł for one year) in the bank. If they can prove they have the money in the bank, the visa is issued. What happens then is that our non-EU friend withdraws the cash, repays the bank and goes to Poland hoping to get a job to cover the cost of everything. The scam used to work well in Western countries until they started cutting down the amount of hours of work permitted, but Poland has no such restrictions. However, they're usually told such information by local 'agents' that get a cut of the fees from the universities - what they don't know is that some guy turning up with dodgy English from halfway around the world is not going to find any work here.

But fees are never 15,000zł except for English courses in real universities. Many private diploma factories offer courses for as little as 300zł/month.

The other thing is that Poland offers the possibility to stay for 2 years after graduation without requiring a work permit. Someone that studies here for 5 years + 2 years work gains 4.5 years towards a permanent residence permit. Another 0.5 years and they've got the right of permanent stay. Furthermore, a lot of them use the time wisely to try and find a partner which guarantees them the right to stay anywhere in the EU. It's quite common to see them move to the UK after they get married to some gullible soul that believes that it's about love...

Of course, others just vanish into Germany.

News / Do you believe that western Europe (ie EU) won`t punish Poland if Poland try to go out of EU? [44]

Wasn't there an opinion poll not so long ago that showed the majority were massively in favour of the EU?

Here we go : gazetaprawna


Seems pretty clear to me that NocyMrok is speaking nonsense.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


The reason was to prevent KOD from using a drone to show how large the demonstration was. More to the point, they refused to explain why the law was brought in. Fortunately, the TV news simply used their helicopters instead to show the size of the following demonstration.

Anyway, why are you assuming that all KOD supporters are on Facebook? A lot of them aren't.

News / Is Jarosław Kaczyński the new Lech Wałęsa? [74]


Indeed. But should PiS refuse to authorise a referendum after the citizens gain enough signatures, then we would almost certainly see a tidal wave of local referendums to remove PiS from all local administrations.

However, I'm against a referendum. I want PiS to stay in power till 2019, because the amount of damage done to the country will be by then very obvious, and PiS will be gone for good.

News / Is Jarosław Kaczyński the new Lech Wałęsa? [74]

I'd like to think that Jarosław Kaczyński is not such a fool that he would try and remain in power after such a referendum.

Having said that, if he tried to stay in power, the military would almost certainly remove him.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


Trying to dismiss nationwide protests (as well as those taking place abroad) as being "insignificant" is amusing when you consider how much effort the PiS-controlled media have spent abusing KOD ;) If KOD were genuinely insignificant, PiS would ignore them. Remind us why PiS banned drones from flying over Warsaw after one was used to illustrate how big the demonstration was a few weeks ago?

Anyway, yesterday in Budapest :

facebook.com/events/529494690539063/permalink/534788723342993/

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Keep on with the PiS-propaganda, we all know that PiS are paying people to say this stuff online.

Anyway, the number of cities demonstrating are growing - I've got 37 at the last count. We can expect more.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

That's because there weren't any, except abroad. Budapest also saw a demonstration, and I believe that there are demonstrations today in Chicago, Stockholm and other places.

And people are most definitely not going out to support the PiS-backed nomeklatura that stands to massively gain by the wiping out of small Polish businesses by the pro-Putin PiS policies.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Anyway, here goes. We're going to see a huge amount of demonstrations this coming weekend.

There's also other demonstrations planned abroad, but I don't have the current list at the minute.

Kaczyński is on the record as saying that he expects huge protests in the spring. He's right.

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News / An article: NATO is the American occupation of Poland and Europe, by Mateusz Piskorski [233]


You mean like half of the PiS government?

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]

Well, even if it's a percentage, it's still a 4% rise.

Remember the government controls PKO, so this is effectively a case of PiS taking money from the citizens.

Law / Non-EU citizen Temporary Residence: Regular and stable income clause [5]

Nope. You need to earn at least 12xaverage monthly wage. The provision is in law, and only in very exceptional circumstances will they overlook it.

However, your business can employ two people on full umowa o pracę contracts. That also meets the criteria.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Polonius, you make an interesting point above.


No. Poland should be using the EU money to become a second Germany in terms of industrial power.


No. The EU structural funds are there so that Poland can build the infrastructure needed to stand on her own two feet.


Good idea. It should be taught from the very beginning - from kindergarten - so that children get equipped with the skills needed. It would be a massive investment as you say, but it would pay off massively. When you consider that 7 billion złoty is spent on pensions for miners, that money could easily provide such a programme.


Yes, it would be a great idea to bring in German and American experts so that we can learn from their culture of small family-owned businesses that are successful. We absolutely should emulate them in this sense.


Unfortunately, PiS just cut those funds. We still have the Erasmus+ programme, but the other funds available to study things in more detail abroad have gone. But again, it would really benefit Poland to have a programme where talented Poles would be funded to go and study abroad on condition that they use the skills in Poland upon their return.


Absolutely. Look at the way that the French cooperatives work - that's pretty much identical. It involves a change of culture however, which is why it would be best to abolish KRUS for small farmers and make it clear that only belonging to a larger cooperative will allow them to pay it.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


Dear Leader Chairman Kaczyński has already made it clear that he intends to change the electoral law in order to help PiS.


And yet they pretend to be acting in the best interests of Poland.

One really starts to wonder exactly what the agenda is.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Couldn't have put it any better myself.

The problem with PiS is that they are modelled very much on the typical Communist Party. Loyal people are rewarded regardless of their actual talents, and the Dear Leader Chairman Kaczyński more or less handpicks everyone in positions of power. They aren't getting chosen for being experts in their field, but rather their personal loyalty - even PiS supporters make it clear that he values loyalty most of all. So they've ended up with a lot of people that simply don't know what they're doing - hence the lobbyists found it remarkably easy to change the 'tax on big foreign shops' to 'tax everyone'.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Why does there need to be political will? Do PiS not have the political talent to come up with a viable tax that won't immediately result in the destruction of small Polish businesses and the end of Polish e-commerce?


There's nothing in it for the Czech Republic or Slovakia, as both of them stand to gain massively from this law.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]

Look down towards point 7 - it shows some percentages that are 'up until' and 'after'.

(mods : I can't really provide a good translation because I'm not so great with financial terminology...)

Travel / Crossing The Poland-Lithuania Border: Suwałki to Kaunas [5]

There will be some local minibuses making the trip to at least Marijampole, but they probably aren't advertised anywhere online.


Wow, has even the terrible bar gone from there?

I spent an interesting hour at the old Polish border crossing 10 years ago in the middle of the night when it was snowing.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Except PKO Bank Polski, which is controlled by the government, has also increased fees :

pkobp.pl/aktualnosci/ogolnokrajowe/zmiana-oprocentowania-kredytow-i-pozyczek-przeterminowanych/

Point 7 onwards show how fees have increased by quite a bit.

What do you think should be done about PiS increasing fees for the users of a bank controlled by the government?

[Moved from]: State controlled bank PKO Bank Polski increases fees and percentages due to new bank tax

It's being brought up in the thread about retail, but I think it's better here.

It turns out that after Duda signed the new law providing for a hefty tax on banks, Poland's biggest bank PKO Bank Polski has significantly increased their fees for their clients. A list of increases can be seen here : pkobp.pl/aktualnosci/ogolnokrajowe/zmiana-oprocentowania-kredytow-i-pozyczek-przeterminowanych/

PiS, far from being interested in "good change" have actually managed to hammer hard working ordinary Polish citizens with increased bank charges at the biggest bank which is also controlled by the government.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


If it was, then PiS would have thrown all their efforts at closing that hole to allow them to meet more of their manifesto promises. Looks like the PISed up economics have been found out. The fact that they only budgeted for 7 billion suggests that the hole doesn't actually exist.


Well, I'm about to switch my bank (from ING) because of the fees introduced - 2.50zł on every withdrawal from non-ING machines as well as a ridiculous 6% loading on foreign currency withdrawals. It doesn't bother me, because I can pick from any bank I want, but Jan Kowalski living in some village is not going to be able to avoid the fees charged by PKO to cover their huge losses, especially as he's unlikely to be able to take advantage of internet banking.