Travel / Flying from USA to Poland in June - Will Visa now be required??? [31]


Don't worry about it. It's been discussed for years, but it's not going to happen this year. Sleep easily and enjoy your time here :)

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Really? Which officers are you referring to, then?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


I know everything about their qualifications - mainly that many of them don't actually have any relevant qualifications, or in the case of #misiewicz, none at all.

As I said, at least the new spokeswoman is a real soldier with a good grasp of foreign affairs and has plenty of good, solid qualifications under her belt.

Law / Parental responsibility removal in Poland [20]

If I understand you correctly, it means he hasn't been deprived of his rights, only that she has custody over him. That means that he still has a veto on the child being taken out of the country.

In this case, she should apply to the court for permission to take the child abroad for a holiday.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

You think removing highly qualified, experienced soldiers with combat experience and a good understanding of the Russian mentality is a good idea at this time?

Surreal. It's amazing how people are so blinded by ideology that they're willing to compromise Poland's defence in the process.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Polly, why are you trying to pretend that Macierewicz is anything but incompetent and useless?

Even the opinion polls show his approval ratings to be as low as 26% - people simply don't like him, which is why he was hidden away during the election campaign. He's causing untold amounts of problems in the armed forces, and what about the helicopters? He cancelled a tender for 50 heavy lift helicopters, and now the MON is saying that they will order 16 Black Hawks instead, which aren't fit for purpose and are far less than originally planned.

Don't you also find it strange that he's surrounding himself with young uneducated boys? At least the new spokeswoman for the MON appears to be actually capable and educated.

Law / Parental responsibility removal in Poland [20]


If he hasn't been deprived of his rights as a parent, then she needs his permission to cross the border with the child. She can apply to the court to remove those rights, but it's a very difficult thing to do.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Really? Quite the opposite, as PO lost their way after he left, partially because he could speak their language and Kopacz couldn't.


Er, Polly... could you *please* try and stop posting such propaganda? Macierewicz is loathed by huge segments of society, with 57% calling for his dismissal. Most young people see how he put an unqualified boy in a prime position and lavished him with money and privileges.


Really? So why have PiS filled up endless positions with cronies rather than the best person for the job? I mean, if they were to do their best for Poland, a nurse should remain a nurse and shouldn't be appointed to the board of large state-owned companies, right?

I just wonder what excuses you're going to come up with when PiS lose power.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

The UK now regards Poland as a potential security threat. Unbelievable.

[natemat.pl/205365,macierewicz-najwiekszy-przyjaciel-rosji-po-tym-co-robil-w-wolnej-polsce-raport-mi-6-nie-jest-zadnym-zaskoczeniem


How can *anyone* support this? Polonius and the other PiS lovers - do you really not see anything wrong with this situation? I want Poland to have strong defence capabilities, I'm sure you do as well, but the complete chaos in the armed services and even stories coming out of severe problems within GROM - is this what you want?

If you care about Poland, you'll drop your pretences and demand his resignation too. There are plenty of people within PiS with experience in the defence industry, there are plenty of retired generals with NATO experience that could do an effective job and so on.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


...tumbleweed.

Not even a cursory attempt to pretend that it's acceptable to refuse to publish the results of a democratic referendum.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Hahaha!

No doubt the 94% of voters in Legionowo who voted against being incorporated into Warsaw are simply the children of SB and all the other insults used by PiS towards anyone that doesn't support them.

It's quite amazing how all these old Communists turned into PiS supporters, isn't it?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

The arrogance of PiS knows no limits. After the crushing defeat in the Legionowo referendum where 94.27% of voters rejected the plan by PiS to forcibly merge their town with Warsaw, the provincial governor is blocking the publication of the results.

fakty.interia.pl/mazowieckie/news-wojewoda-nie-chce-opublikowac-wynikow-referendum-w-legionowi,nId,2377789

We now have the serious situation that PiS are blocking democracy by refusing to publish the results, which means that the same could occur again in local elections next year. It seems that with the polls turning against them in a considerable way, they're now resorting to undemocratic and authoritarian methods - which is exactly what we said would happen.

I eagerly await Comrade Polonius' excuse as to why the results cannot be published immediately.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


That really does sound exactly like PiS. They're lacking morals and ethics (the huge payouts from state-owned companies to unqualified, inexperienced Party members says it all), they've had zero restraint even in the face of large amounts of opposition, they believe that they are right, money talks (hence the large amounts funnelled to that priest in Torun), and they believe that a thin majority gives them the right to dismantle the Polish state.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

I think we'll all be glad to be rid of this government.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

It gets even better. I've just discovered the seat distribution based on the above results.

IBRiS polls:

PiS: 180
PO: 168
K'15: 41
PSL: 26
N. 25
SLD: 19
MN: 1

Centrist: 239
Right: 221

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Anyway, more important news.

GREAT NEWS FOR CENTRIST OPPOSITION

In a poll conducted today by the highly respected IBRiS polling agency, the latest poll reveals that the centrist opposition in Poland are now pulling ahead in the polls. The highly discredited "good change" government led by PiS are clinging onto 1st place by the narrowest of margins, while voters are now clearly rejecting right wing politics in Poland.

PiS: 30.5%
PO: 29%
Kukiz'15: 8.8%
N.: 7.4%
PSL: 6.6%
SLD: 6%

This gives a result of 39.3% for right wing parties, while the centrist coalition is now on 49%. That's a 10% advantage for the opposition and proves that voters are unhappy with the "good changes".

Another poll was conducted by Pollster, which gave the following results:

PiS: 31%
PO: 26%
N. 11%
Kukiz'15: 11%
SLD: 12%
Razem: 5%

This poll would put the right wing on 42% vs 54% for the centrist-left opposition.

With these levels of support, there are serious questions over whether this government can even survive 4 years.

Law / Report a stolen iPhone or other theft in Poland? [9]

Strange, because the main police station is in the centre of town - poznan.pl/mim/main/komisariaty,poi,1170,40/komisariat-policji-poznan-stare-miasto,27163.html

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

You're spreading the tired out myth pushed by PiS.

The reality is that PO simply abandoned the unconstitutional parts of the law, which meant that they complied with the rulings. PiS tried to claim that as PO didn't do anything, they somehow disregarded the TK, but that's simply a lie.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Given the huge amount of stories concerning friends and acquaintances of Kaczyński earning huge sums of cash from state-owned companies, are you surprised that we have such views?


That lie was thoroughly debunked by the Constitutional Tribunal.

Law / Report a stolen iPhone or other theft in Poland? [9]


Sorry, but no, you can't. You need to report it straight away.

Why wasn't it possible to report it?

USA, Canada / Polish-American criminals [70]

It's been a while, but I think it's time to discuss more Polish-American criminals and the stupid things that they do.

My favourite now is the "Hotel Thief" - wpbf.com/article/hotel-squatter-racks-up-1460-bill-takes-tv/1324387


Not the most intelligent of criminals, it has to be said. Anyone else encountered any fun stories concerning stupid criminals in the USA?

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

GOOD NEWS FOR THE OPPOSITION

After a highly successful March in the opinion polls, the beginning of April brought great news for Poland's pro-democracy forces.

ewybory.eu/sondaze

As we can see from the above link, the centrist opposition from PO/N./SLD/PSL led the right wing pro-government forces 43.5% to 41.8%. Among votes that will definitely vote and have made up their minds, the centrist opposition leads 47.1% to 45.6%.

Votes are clearly rejecting the hateful and spiteful "government" led by two marionettes, instead preferring liberal democracy. With farmers due to march on Warsaw and a successful school strike, one wonders whether or not the government can even rule for 4 years instead of the 16 that they have previously proclaimed.

please note: this post has been written in the style of Polonius3

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


But who decides what the law is? Why, the Dear Leader Kaczyński of course!


Quite. One reason why PiS wants to destroy the independent judiciary is that the Supreme Court is now the only competent institution able to interpret the Constitution correctly.

Still, one wonders what Polonius will write when the next government writes a law that bans PiS from politics. The law will say that the President's signature is not needed, and that the Constitutional Tribunal cannot rule on the law. According to Polly's logic, that will be just fine.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


Sure, why not? It forces moderate, consensual politics.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

And it was only through a huge amount of disqualified votes that they managed to govern alone. I still think having 20% of disqualified votes on a 50% turnout was terrible for democracy.

Either way, it means that right-wing politics are down about 8% based on seats from the last election.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Just to back up the poll I mentioned above, here's the projected numbers of seats based on that result.

PiS: 181
PO: 163
K: 48
SLD: 35
N: 32
MN:1

Or in coalition terms - PiS+Kukiz'15 on 229, PO+SLD+N+MN on 231.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


These people don't want to verify it. Why, I don't know, but it's remarkably hypocritical to criticise others for it and then turn a blind eye to the abuses carried out by PiS.


Apparently he's been almost completely sidelined by Macierewicz, with generals and other high ranking officers prohibited from meeting and talking with Duda. The funniest thing is that his claims that the Poland spent 2.01% of GDP on defence is an easily verifiable lie - it includes the money for new planes. The two big ones that were supposed to come....haven't been ordered.

Language / How well do Polish people understand Slovak? [88]


Absolutely, dropping sz, cz and rz (for š, č and ř respectively) makes a lot of sense. The problem is with dz, dź, dż - the B/C/M/S đ could be used for one of them, but it still leaves two awkward letters.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


I was going to post it, but it's just too much even for me. It's having a negative effect on them, as people are seeing them award themselves high salaries and bonuses despite many of them being absolutely unqualified to do the job.

In a sense, it's PO's failing. If many of these companies had been privatised and taken out of state control, PiS wouldn't have been able to do this. We all knew they were going to do it, and the impact on these companies will be felt for a long, long time.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Newest poll:

wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114871,21570914,najnowszy-sondaz-pis-tylko-o-wlos-przed-platforma.html?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=SM&utm_campaign=FB_Gazeta

PiS: 29%
PO: 27%
Kukiz'15: 10%
Nowoczesna: 8%
SLD: 8%

As it stands, the centrist opposition coalition has 43% of the vote vs 39% for the right.