News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]


This is just a claim that has been refuted numerous times already. Germany has in fact a lot of soft power by any indication.

softpower30.com/country/germany/

Cultural soft power is more than just who has the most netflix series. Otherwise no country except the USA and maybe the UK would have any. It includes the numer of people who learn a language, listen ro music and read literature. And in that regard Germqny has a lot to offer.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]


This nonsense again?

softpower30.com/country/germany/


You are confusing Germany with Poland here. Thanks to PiS, Poland plays little to no part in the creation of European policy making. Whereas Germany is still involved in all initiatives.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]


I am not surprised, since you also see Gulags in the EU and probably a lot of other crazy stuff. Poland faces no military threat from the West, but it does from the East, and thus asks for Western support. If it were to leave the Western alliance system, it would naturally lose this help without any compensation for it.


Naturally both sides would suffer, since both sides benefit from the current status. But if we just talk about bilateral negotiations, there would be so many ways for the economically larger country to hurt the other without the latter being able to retaliate. Poland has a huge logistic industry, with trucks driving through Western Europe, with Germany as the central hub. It would be simply for Germany to introduce poll taxes for them. After all, if Polish drivers use German autobahns, they can pay for their upkeep (which Polish drivers are currently protected against by EU law). Germany could introduce measure to have Polish workers pay more taxes in Germany, and prevent them from claiming social benefits. (again against EU law). We could implement rules like Macron suggested to prevent polish plumbers from undercutting the minimum wage in Germany. What could Poland do against this? It depends after all on its' many expats, and like with the UK, Warsaw would adopt a conciliatory tone. Poland is also important as a work bench for Germany, but how long would it take for other countries trying to lure German companies away to them by offering better conditions? And that leaves out the possibility of closer economic relations with Russia, once Berlin does no longer need to show any consideration for Warsaw. Again, both sides would likely suffer, but unlile Germany, Poland would not have anything to lessen the pain.

And again, what is the strategic benefit of this for Poland? It does not gain anything by it.


I would consider them as Poland's big friends. Friends because they are willing to treat them as equals, but sadly this only works if the Polish sides is willing to act in good faith.

News / Polexit? Almost half of the Poles believe that Poland would be better off outside of the EU [548]


Maybe not enemies to the West, but probably no friends. It is really puzzling to me how some Poles are so dead set on repeating past mistakes. It would be one thing of they said "We want to closely align with Russia instead", but it as evident that many of them deem Russia as a threat. Which means they are intent on weakening Poland's position without any tangible benefit. Do they really want to see their country into another Ukraine, constantly in danger of interference from Russia? Because NATO will likely not be around to protect them for much longer.

In short, they dream off a kind of independence that is not possible anymore. Smaller countries need to rely/ally with bigger ones if they feel threatened. And even military threats aside, bigger countries can dictate trade conditions to smaller ones, if the latter have no one to back them up.

Off-Topic / DALMATIA - How much Poles love Dalmatia ? [123]


Fixed that for you.

History / Occupation of Eastern Poland in 1939 [97]


Indeed, the Western allies handed over most of the power to the newly founded FRG, and surrendered the rest de facto in the 1950s. Afterwards the Allies treated the FRG as an allied country and did not try to influence its' domestic or foreign policy anymore than they would do to another country. Meanwhile the Warsaw pact countries remained puppets of the SU until the very end.

History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]

Putin has in fact tried to downplay the atrocity by claiming that they were retaliation for previous imaginary massacres against Russians... .

History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]

Reading the Wikipedia page about the killing of Russian journalist (that they even need a page just shows how significant the situation is) really paints a bleak picture. Especially parts like this.

When the death was not related to the journalist's work the conviction rate exceeds 90%. When the journalist's death was certainly [related to his work] the rate of acquittals rise sharply to around half of the total.

And that even ignores that in cases which have conviction, those who likely ordered the murder are not properly investigated.

News / How could PiS better spend billions instead of 500+ ? [280]

Invest it into education, and more specifically, invest it into education for gifted children from poor families. Few investments pay off as much as in education, and as in every society, there are likely many children who can not live up to their full potential because their background makes this impossible.

Moreover simply handing out money is not a good idea, because there is no guarantee that the money will be used for their children. Instead grant them free food in schools, scholarships, bus tickets et al.

Off-Topic / DALMATIA - How much Poles love Dalmatia ? [123]

And yet Netanyahu claimed that the mufti inspired Hitler to kill them all.

Off-Topic / DALMATIA - How much Poles love Dalmatia ? [123]

The same Netanyahu who claimed that Hitler got the idea of the Holocaust from the mufti of Jerusalem?

History / Modern myths and legends about communist past in Poland [227]


To be fair, the Berlin Wall made it possible to convict him and others for homicide. If the Berlin Wall had not existed, it probably would have been much for diffficult to charge him and others with anything substantial. Election fraud maybe and some other offenses, but nothing to put them behind bars for years. The judges were extraordinarily lenient (and in many cases too lenient) in their judgements. Though we had some smart prosecutors who went to great lengths to assure that justice was done. Stasi-chief Miehlke was e.g. convicted for the murder of two police officers he commited in 1933. It also helped that we had with West Germany an outside actor that was not complicit in the GDR regime and thus could push for their prosecution. Just like Germany could not have held the Nuremberg trials in 1945, it would not have been possible to convict Krenz and others solely by East Germans.

Poland on the other hand was still the same country, and even excluding other considerations, it is easy to see why the leading communists were not prosecuted.

News / PiS and Russian political/economic interests [70]


The EU took nothing. Poland willingly gave part of its' sovereignity in order to join it. The promised benefits were far from vague either. Economic prosperity and the political cloud that comes with being part of the EU. Both of which the EU fulfilled.


That would have been much slower, and led to economic relations that are not nearly as deep as they are now. Poland wouldn't have nearly developed as good as it did without the prospect of EU membership, and that leaves out the political benefit it was after.


The question rather, since when does Poland have issues with Russia? Poland views Russia as its' main geopolitical threat and thus seeks to be as much protected from it as it can be. PiS actions however contradict this goal.

You seem to be lacking a lot of insight into Poland, if you are not even aware of Poland's concern regarding Russia.

News / PiS and Russian political/economic interests [70]

It is easy to be for something if you don't have to suffer the consequences.

News / PiS and Russian political/economic interests [70]

What they write makes perfect sense. Poland's security depends on its' integration into the Western world, which rests on the two pillars Nato and EU. Weakening it has been one major Russian goal in order to increase Russian influencr in Eastern Europe. By underminig the EU, PiS is acting for the Kremlin.

News / Poland's LBGT Seen as Dangerous Foreign Idea. [39]


Because sex is all about reproduction nowadays.... .

News / Poland's LBGT Seen as Dangerous Foreign Idea. [39]


Established by whom? By you and demented bigots like Rich Mazur? There is no reason why sex between two male or two female partners should be considered "perverted" by any rational individual.

There seems to be a silver lining in Poland though. The attitude towards LBGT people is changing. We might see some drastic changes over the next 20 years. Once the public attitude has shifted, legal changes are next.

npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/06/25/417446107/for-polands-gay-community-a-shift-in-public-attitudes-if-not-laws?t=1564644512621&t=1564743836636&t=1565553632020

News / Poland's LBGT Seen as Dangerous Foreign Idea. [39]


What is so perverted about what LBGT do to each other compared to what a hetero couple is capable to? It is not like hetero couples never practice b*tt sex if they are so inclined.

News / Poland's LBGT Seen as Dangerous Foreign Idea. [39]

Treating your own people with dignity is seen "as a dangerous foreign idea by some"?

Off-Topic / DALMATIA - How much Poles love Dalmatia ? [123]

Croatia is in fact older than Serbia by at least half a century.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1158]


No, because the German government pledged earlier than any other country that it would help to fill the hole in the budget left by Brexit. Poland however did no such thing.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1158]


Well, the Polish politicians who negotiated the last budget were. If the rumors are true, then the amount of money allocated for Poland will be reduced significantly, thanka to the PiS politicians.

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [470]


Again with this nonsense. Germany spends more than 200bn on education. The amount you are refering to is the federal budget, which is only a fraction of the expenses. The German schools and universities are all funded by the federal counties.

Here are the (outdated) numbers from 2014.


eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/funding-education-31_en

If you have any ability to proceed information, you will now stop using this silly argument.

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [470]


It is, another important measure is the wealth of its citizen, and thus their ability to finance their later retirement costs, which is as pointed out another thing that is lacking in Poland.

For now perhaps, which is to be expected given the language barriers and lack qualifaction, but more and more refugees are getting integrated into the labor market.

independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-refugee-intake-boost-economy-ageing-population-unemployment-a8901161.html


A small amount of money relatively speaking. Germany spends close to 1tn€ on its' welfare state and the way the money is distributed it benefits the German economy, basically a mini-stimulus.


Something every government has to deal with time to time. In the case of Germany, it is a very small one, and won't lead to the country taking on additional debt (something that Poland is doing).

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [470]


The US perhaps, but Germany very much can afford it. In fact Germany's debt per GDP has been decreasing during the last few years.


There are only a few that will suffer worse, none of which are in Western Europe.

qz.com/1187819/country-ranking-worlds-fastest-shrinking-countries-are-in-eastern-europe/


In some way perhaps, but it also means more old people, thus higher costs for the health system and fewer peoplw to support it. It is also bad news that have low unemployment figures like Poland to begin with.

News / Scandals, conflicts, tensions, arguments - real life examples from Poland [470]


True, Poland is not really like those countries. Poland's economy is not yet as advanced, and its' population has not yet individually acquired the same wealth as the Westerners. Meanwhile Poland is one of the countries that will be affected the most by the looming demographic decline, so social spending that is unaffordable in the long run is hardly a good idea.

History / Polish treasures in Sweden? [18]

Kind of difficult to solve this anyway when one of these conflicts was basically a conflict between a Polish king claiming the crown of Sweden vs another foreign claimant.

Most of the looted treasures belonged to Polish aristocrats, and most decidely not to the Polish state (the Polish aristocrats were insistent on this).

News / PiS candidates are losing positions in EU Parliament. Will they keep power in Poland? [358]

The UK is a special case because the looming Brexit has decreased migration from other EU countries as well, and because it received a large amount of Polish migrants to begin with, who now often return to live their retirement in Poland.

That does not change the fact Polish people are migrating to Germany and other Western European countries.

News / PiS candidates are losing positions in EU Parliament. Will they keep power in Poland? [358]

@Ziemowit


Me too.


Of course he does not. The statistics show a clear net migratiom from Poland to Germamy in 2018 and the years before that.

News / PiS candidates are losing positions in EU Parliament. Will they keep power in Poland? [358]


I obviously have not read it, but does he take the looming demographic crisis in Poland into account? Poland will be among the worst affected in Europe.