News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


Indeed - anyone who believes that the Kaczynski's were some sort of moral guardians are sadly deluded.

I mean - when you look at them -

Father who almost certainly did some sort of deal with the communists
Marta Kaczynska, who had children with someone other than her husband and is now on her second husband from a Communist family
Jaroslaw's somewhat dubious life as a single man with a cat
Lech's attempts to force a pilot into doing something potentially suicidal (among all the other things)
Political witchhunts against enemies, both real and imagined

Maria Kaczynska on the other hand seems to have been a pretty decent person.

In all fairness - no doubt the late President was manipulated by his daughter into pardoning the crook.

News / Donald Tusk's Government of Poland Continues to Oppress Poles [161]


Torq, come on, you can do better than this.

Poland was allowed to maintain the exception for baby clothes until now by the EU - this VAT rise would have been implemented irrespective of who was in power, and it's not something that can be blamed on Tusk or indeed the current Government at all. Perhaps the SLD coalition of 2001-2005 should be blamed - they're the ones who negotiated the accession treaty, after all.

Your article even makes it clear that Poland was pushed into this.

As I always say - accept the EU decision, or leave. Poland's choice.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]

Oh, come on, it was the 90's. Completely different country - it sounds totally unrecognisable compared to Poland today.


It's certainly an odd story - but this is Poland - is it any surprise that someone didn't destroy them like they should have been?

But in all of this - I'm very much convinced that PiS have actually blown it themselves. They may very well have won the Presidential election if they had nominated someone who was truly independent, after all.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


Actually, you're not far off the truth as I see it.

People might hate Tusk, but they'll vote PO to simply prevent PiS from gaining power. It's the same reason why the SLD might be going well at the minute, but in the election, PO will win simply to avoid the very scary prospect of PiS in the government.

PiS really did blow it - if they had got rid of Kaczynski, adopted an honest Catholic-Socialist programme without all of the crap and deliberately played on certain aspects, they'd be in with a real chance of winning. But - unfortunately - Kaczynski won't relinquish power for the good of the party - and that is what will cost them in October.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


It won't be double, but it might increase turnout from 50% to around 60-65%. Not worth it in my view - but obviously PO feel that there's a need for it.


The problem is that this isn't just one example of PiS - but rather something that was going on throughout the country. There was a very strong suggestion during the Presidential campaign that PiS-sympathetic priests were breaking the law in Eastern Poland, for instance.

But - I don't recall GW posting anything during the electoral silence. I followed both elections pretty closely, and nothing was mentioned on the site, except what was previously published.


What are these attempts? I've never heard anything about PO attempting to silence Rzeczpospolita.

Gazeta Wyborcza is unashamedly against PiS and everything they stand for. Is that really a problem, given the latest revelations about Marta Kaczynska's husband?

It certainly seems that most of the protests against Gazeta Wyborcza is that their journalists are just too damned good at digging up things that people don't want to be dug up.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


Pretty simple - the longer people can vote, the more likely they will.

I don't see much need for it, turnout is always around 50% - that's more than enough. Of course - compulsory voting would do the same job.


Certainly, all sides in Poland are guilty of law breaking and childish behaviour. This is nothing new to those of us that follow Polish politics.

For me, the electoral silence rule is a waste of time anyway. If PiS members want to stand outside churches on Sundays, let them - no big deal for me. Likewise, newspapers and the media should be free to say what they want. The law served a purpose in times of old - now that we have more or less bipatrisan media, there's really no need to silence anyone.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


To increase turnout. It seems to me to be pretty clear.

However, as much as it pains me to say - Kaczynski is right - it's not in accordance with the constitution.


I wonder why PiS are pushing so heavily for this? Wouldnt this actually go against them, due to the fact that their supporters are far more likely to observe it?

Interestingly - I saw some PiS supporters breaking the electoral silence law last time round. Where? Outside a church.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


Thing is, I don't even blame him. The real people to blame are the ones who provide his power base - they're the ones letting him melt down in public. They could (and should) have removed him after the Presidential election defeat - he was a broken, beaten man - but alas, they failed to strike.

And now, opposition looms for another 4 years.


Sadly, we can't trust the archives anymore. When you consider that not only the Communists in 1989, but also Solidarity may very well have tampered with them - as well as the fact that the Communist secret agencies were well known to falsify things - these archives aren't reliable. We really can't trust a damn thing in them - which is a shame.


It seems to me that in 2005, Jaroslaw Kaczynski took the chance to punish political enemies. He had made plenty of them - and somehow managed to gain the parliamentary majority needed to get away with it. If you listen to his rants, he had spent around 15 years building up enemy after enemy - and when he finally got the chance to use the State against people - he did.

His actions were certainly worth of Sanacja, though not worthy of any modern democracy.


Indeed - I trust the people at the election authority. If there's evidence - then they should take it to the public prosecutors instead of ranting to the media.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


It's when you intentionally cast an invalid vote - in my case, I wrote a huge dialogue about why neither Grobelny or Ganowicz were suitable to be president of Poznan. It contained a lot of words such as "corrupt" and "not fit for office" ;)


Strange - wonder why they don't include it in the figures in an easily accessible format?

Does what Kaczynski said match up with reality? 2 million spoiled votes from among about what, 15 million seems rather odd.


But he's the one bleating about electoral fraud and all sorts of other imaginary crimes, yet he doesn't go to the public prosecutor with them.

The man is clearly mentally ill - you don't need to know much to know that he's having a very real public breakdown - and what's he going to be like after they lose yet again in the election this year?

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


I spoiled my vote in the mayoral election 2nd round here. Nothing special.

Incidentally, the PKW doesn't say anything about spoiled votes. As usual with Kaczynski, he's spouting unverifiable nonsense. I mean, the man is absolutely convinced that he had some sort of right to the Presidency - is it a surprise that he's claiming electoral fraud?


So how do you explain the disappearances during the PiS government?

Genealogy / Looking for any and all information on Dabrowski/Dombrowski from Poland [88]


You did a great job with it - I was reading it and thinking "wow...she's good" :)

Genealogy / Looking for any and all information on Dabrowski/Dombrowski from Poland [88]

You really have to wonder how good a private investigator must be if he can't even find a Dąbrowski in Poland.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


It's the line that some Kaczynski supporters have been spouting, ever since their run of election defeats started in 2007. Jaroslaw Kaczynski himself has never came to terms with losing last year - even to the point of alleging (but not providing any proof) electoral fraud.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]


Yeah, although they need to change it for a Polish licence after one year. As I recall, they need to pass the theory test in Poland to do so.

It's not a bad way of doing things - if they're already in the USA for a reason, they might as well do it there and save themselves the hassle and worry.

I always wondered why the USA handed out driving licences so easily - yet they're far better drivers than most Europeans. Odd.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]


Just call driving schools and ask them if they've got any English speaking instructors. Many of them will do, without advertising it openly.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

As a matter of note, I tried it again recently and smashed into the poles ;(

(as you can see on the diagram, there are points where there are plastic poles sticking into the air. If you touch one of them, it's an instant fail. If you stop during the forwards/reversing part of the move, you get a 2nd chance (except in the end zones - which you must do), and you also get a second chance if you touch (but not cross) the lines painted on surface. Crossing the line is also an instant fail.

The only good thing is that you must maintain forwards/backwards motion. You can go about 2km an hour if you so please - as long as you don't stop the car.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

It's the compulsory test in the driving centre - where you must drive forward along a track, turn 90 degrees and stop, then reverse back along the track and stop, again in a certain "stop zone".

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

You'll actually fail before getting on the open road if you can't perform the two mandatory tests at the centre.

Smurf - one bit of advice for learning : make sure you spend a decent amount of time on the arch. It's an utter bastard, I must have practiced it about 200-300 times. There's several different ways of doing it as well - I'd advise you to experiment with it until you find something that you feel comfortable with. The instructor will no doubt have "his" way - but really, any way that works consistently is fine.

Even if you find that you can nail it 10/10, I'd still do more practice. I was absolutely shaking during the reverse part of the arch!

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]


No problem, anything to help.

Got it - grupaimage.com.pl

They're the publishers of the English materials :)


All of the cars in Poland should be equipped with cameras and a microphone - there's some formalities which have to be "announced" to the recording.

From what I know, the only cases recently involving bribery have involved the management of the driving centres as opposed to the examiners themselves.

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

Typical Poles, winding up foreigners as always.

It's a bit hard to get away with corruption when there's four video cameras and a microphone in the test car.

Smurf - I can only speak for Poznan, but I know several foreigners who have done their tests here, and the tests have always been absolutely fair. I passed first time :)

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]


Yep, without a doubt. I don't think much has changed since last year - so it's about 440 questions to learn. Everyone's way of learning is different, but loads of the questions are just a case of "any idiot could answer this" - I think there's only really about 10% of the questions that you need to be careful about and actually learn.

One thing I'll warn you about is that the translation of the questions is a bit...hmm - crap at times :)


That's a bit dodgy - I had the classes in English, specifically for me. Most of it is common sense, but there are a few things that are worth learning about - for instance, the law on turning right on the small green (separate) arrow.

Still, if you don't mind just learning the questions by heart, there's really no need for the theory classes.

I'll try and dig up the name of the publisher of the CD - for some reason, I think they're based in Pila, but I can't be sure...

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]


You can definitely get the CD containing all the questions for the driving test in English. The rest of the materials - I haven't seen them in English, but they might be available. But as I recall - last year - they weren't available in English, just the CD with the questions was.

The instructor should have all the materials available for the theory part of the compulsory training (mine did, anyway). In al fairness - if the instructor does his job properly, you'll be taught everything you need to know in the theory lectures.

As for the test - you'll need the sworn translator for both the theory and practical parts, although the actual theory test is conducted in English. It's to do with the idiotic requirement for the translator to translate the instructions.

Life / Child abuse in Poland [64]

You need to define abuse.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

I make a point of avoiding them - who wants to listen to them?

Travel / Why does everyone seem to hate LOT Polish Airlines? [380]

You do realise that they're there for safety, not to look at?

LOT is a State owned European company - they can hardly have the practices of Singapore Airlines, for example.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


Uh, the deficit was far, far worse in the late 80's.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]


No no, you don't understand. Tusk didn't win, but rather it was part of a Russo-German plot to remove the Kaczynski's from power. Tusk is just their pupp...why am I saying this nonsense? I guess - Tusk must be the first dictator that relied on another independent political party to remain in power!

I've always thought that for as long as PiS refuse to accept that they lost, they'll stay in opposition forever. Exactly the same situation as Labour in the mid 80's - utter refusal to accept that Thatcher had crushed them in 79, with a subsequent lurch to the left.


Any evidence that Poland isn't democratic?

Poland seems to be rather free of the nonsense that happens elsewhere. Even the electoral boundaries seem to be rather fair.

News / Polish PM Tusk- dictator or not? What Poles think? [421]

Screw democracy when it doesn't choose the "right" winner.

Life / What is Poland's view on obesity? How healthy, fit are Poles? [166]


And he can come to my city, Poznań, too.

Open invitation PennBoy, what about it? I mean, I know you're more at home in places like Kielce, but - hey!

Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]

If you stand your ground, that is. How many people will stand their ground when there's a couple of blokes in uniform, reminding them that if they get taken to court and found guilty, they've got a criminal record for smuggling on their record? That kind of thing would pretty much make you persona non grata when it comes to CRB-checked jobs - who's going to employ someone that was busted for smuggling cigarettes?

The whole thing does work on scare tactics, I agree - and not many people are tough enough to be prepared to sit it out. People will sign anything under pressure - if they're handed a statement after 4 hours of questioning and told to sign it and they can go, what are they gonna do?


The problem with this approach is that if UKBA say "really? what's their phone number?" - you need everyone on the list to cooperate with you as well. And then there's the rest of it - if you're on benefits and buying five hundred quid's worth of cigarettes, the first thing they're going to do is question where you've got the money from.

Customs in the UK have been getting away with murder for years - it's not going to stop now. If someone tries to argue the toss and quote the law at them, they're just going to close ranks, seize the cigarettes and leave it to the appeal process. When was the last time you heard of someone in UKBA being sacked for making the wrong decision?