News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Notice how the most dismissive of abortion rights are the ones that live in places where abortions can be obtained easily and freely.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]


That's a disgusting thing to say, and it's exactly the reason why thousands upon thousands of women took to Polish streets today.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Poor Greggy. He seems to live in a world where it's considered "insignificant" that tens of thousands of people are on the streets every weekend.

Warsaw alone will have at least 10,000 in front of the Sejm.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Merged: Protests in Poland against proposed changes to abortion laws

Tomorrow, Sunday 03/04, will see massive demonstrations all over Poland against the planned changes in the abortion law.

You can find more here - takdlakobiet.pl/aktualnosci/protest-against-a-complete-ban-on-abortions-in-poland/ - in short, the proposed law will effectively criminalise women, which is not currently the case. It will also have many other nasty consequences, and the law is supported by the leader of the government, who has also made it clear that "most, if not all members of the ruling party will vote in favour of the law".

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


The point is that justice is supposed to be administered by the government, in accordance with the PRL ideals. The concept of an independent legal system is entirely beyond their understanding.

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


Good idea. PiS supporters will feel right at home there, while Poland will be left to those of us who want Poland to prosper.

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

Actually, in Poland, the remaining streets with such names are normally heavily supported by the residents. There's a place in Poznań called os. 40-lecia PRL - and the residents there voted to keep the name rather than change it.

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


Except it's not feasible. All you're doing is creating a state-owned challenger to a privately owned Polish-owned company, thus hurting the prospects of the already-successful Polish company and burdening the Polish company that had to buy Autosan.

Experience shows us that in this case, Autosan will simply serve as a place for jobs for the boys and will lose astronomical amounts of money that could be spent on creating something far more modern and viable in the province. More to the point : how do you expect to attract the best people to Sanok? The only way it can work is for PiS controlled towns to buy Autosan buses, which represents the very worst in communist economics.

In related news, Poles are not impressed with the neo-Communist agenda being followed by PiS. The latest opinion poll shows that PiS are below 30%, while PO/Nowoczesna are now on a combined 37%.

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


Complete madness. Poland already has very successful companies in the transport field - Autosan has been lying idle for years now, and it's going to cost a considerable amount of money to even produce a single bus now. It's an electoral bribe to Sanok and the surrounding area, nothing else.

It would've made much more sense to invest money into PESA, Solaris or NEWAG - all three are successful in their fields, and in particular, Solaris could have done with genuine government support to get their trams into more European cities. Their bus brand is successful, but the trams haven't been as successful despite being a fairly decent product.


This was a process started by the previous government. PiS really cannot claim the credit for this.


And yet allows religious groups to maintain large land holdings. I wonder how the Poles are going to feel about Saudi Arabia buying up huge parts of farmland under the name of the Polish Muslim community.

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


And it will come back to haunt her. There's plenty of members of PiS that won't vote in favour of the legislation, but if the Church comes out and threatens politicians again (like they did last time), it's going to be a very awkward situation indeed.

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


It's a seriously difficult situation for him. Szydło has come out as saying that she supports an absolute ban, but PiS MP's will be allowed to vote according to their conscience. Some from PO are pro life as well, meaning that the legislation has a real chance of actually succeeding. PiS might be able to put it on the back burner for a little while, but it's clear that the Church now expects it to be brought up to the Sejm.

Polonius, do you have any idea why the Church is now bringing it up? It seems to be the worst possible time for PiS - from a political strategy point of view, it would be far better to keep the abortion debate under wraps until after the next election.

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

So, Polonius, tell us : are you in favour of tightening the law?

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


That too. Still, it's almost certainly going to cause PiS to have serious problems politically. The latest figures show that more than half of Poles support liberalising the current law, so they would be acting entirely against the opinion of the general public.

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

That article also points out exactly how Kaczyński has a dilemma over this whole thing. I'm surprised the RCC has gone for it, but perhaps this is their payback for allowing priests to blatantly support PiS over the years.

News / Poland's PiS party members and crime [346]


The court hasn't overturned anything. They have simply recognised the state of affairs according to the Constitution - that those two criminals have been pardoned and that there is no other way to deal with it except to consider the matter closed.

They did not find them innocent, but rather accepted that the President has a right to pardon criminals and that's that. The correct ruling was made, as it was in accordance with the Constitution. It's worth pointing out that the defence wanted to keep the trial process open so that they could be cleared - but they will remain officially pardoned as criminals.

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

Well, well. Another day, another interesting development.

The RCC, sensing that PiS relied heavily on them for the last 8 years, has now turned round and is pushing for tightening the abortion laws. They (in cooperation with PiS) want to criminalise abortion after rape, as well as criminalising abortion if the fetus is suffering from irreversible genetic damage. They also want to punish women with prison sentences for up to 5 years for undergoing an abortion.

Meanwhile, Kaczyński has been trying (and failing) to convince the bishops to back off on the abortion project. Anti-abortion campaigners on the other hand smell blood - they know that PiS have the parliamentary majority and it would be politically nearly impossible for Kaczyński to refuse a direct request from the Episcopate on the matter. Anti-abortion campaigners are putting together the signatures needed for a citizens initiative to be brought up in front of the Sejm.

Obviously - this is going to cause a lot of anger and will destablise PiS from within. PiS cannot afford to enter into conflict with the Episcopate, but nor can they afford emotions going sky high as a result of criminalising women for having abortions.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this.

News / Poland's PiS party members and crime [346]


They haven't overturned the convictions. They in fact confirmed that the President has the absolute right to pardon criminals regardless of where the case is in the legal system, meaning that the criminals Kamiński and Wąsik have had their guilt confirmed, as you can hardly pardon an innocent person.

Law / If I change my job in Poland without obtaining a new work permit, will this affect my residence visa [21]


They might, especially if ZUS and the tax office has no record of you. I would ask for an individual meeting with the inspector and explain the situation clearly to avoid any problems.

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]


I use "superior" to mean "ease of travel". The Polish passport still suffers from some insane restrictions, such as the need to get a visa to visit the USA. I won't go there until they drop visas for Poles out of solidarity with them, because it's absolutely ridiculous and unfair.


Agreed. That's why I wouldn't object to a set of rules that rewards those that work hard and contribute while denying those that might just want an easy route to an EU passport.


Only a non-Pole could say that, as any real Polish person would know and remember how many Polish citizens were stripped of their citizenship in previous years by hostile governments. That's actually why Article 34, paragraph 2 of the Polish Constitution makes it clear that renouncing one's citizenship is the only way to lose it.

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]


How was it forced upon you? You could easily have remained stateless. You obviously benefited from having the superior British passport for many years - so why would you want to deny others?


I'm merely pointing out the lunacy of trying to apply arbitrary criteria to decide who is worthy of citizenship and who isn't.

Any country should be happy to have citizens that can document a clear contribution to their society, which is what Poland requires. I'm also against granting citizenship easily, and I'd like to see a requirement for volunteering put into the law. Someone that wants Polish citizenship should be required to complete a large amount of volunteering before it can be granted - the same should apply regardless if it's by descent or by naturalisation.

I'm sure you'd agree that requiring at least 500 hours of proven volunteering (it's about what, 12 weeks of full time volunteering?) would be a positive step forwards and proof that such a person is giving back what he/she is getting.


No-one "casually" obtains Polish citizenship, except perhaps a few sports figures (and that practice was largely stopped by the previous government after the nonsense of Polish players not speaking Polish was revealed). If you think that having to show at least 5 years of work in Poland, as well as undergoing at least three detailed background checks among other things is "casual", then you're mistaken.

Having said all this, I'd like to see time spent 'studying' in Poland not to count towards permanent residency, and I'd also like the see the monetary requirements tightened up considerably for students.

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]


That hasn't been the case for many, many years. Poland considering those with dual citizenship to be exclusively Poles is normal, and in line with international agreements on dual citizenship.


For some reason, I detect some bitterness from you about such people. Is it connected to being required to obtain a work permit while those with superior citizenships don't require one? ;)

Anyway, it's a moot issue. The government has no intention of changing the rules, and the current rules grant citizenship automatically to those that meet the requirements.

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]

You haven't thought about it very well, have you?

The rules apply equally to everyone. That means that more nationalist-leaning Ukrainians will also have a longer route to citizenship, which means that the current government also lose their votes. It also means that any members of the Polonia that aren't able to get Polish citizenship will also face a longer and more difficult route to citizenship, hence it'll take longer to get their votes.

The idea of prohibiting any single group from voting in elections is frankly nonsense. Incidentally, dolnoslask who posts above is a dual national and considers himself Polish - I suppose you also want to strip him of his voting rights, as well as the many US Polonia who can vote?

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]

The present Polish government has no interest in 'addressing' this issue, because the law is rigorous and sufficient enough in the current implementation. Anyone that cannot clearly document their integration into Polish society/prove their value isn't getting citizenship.

However, the government would be well advised to break the 'chain' of citizenship. Someone that has no connection to Poland beyond a smattering of anglicised English words and some folk stories should not be receiving Polish citizenship.

Might also not be a terrible idea to introduce the concept of banning dual citizenship. That would certainly reduce the amount of passport tourists who simply want the benefits of EU citizenship.

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]


Perhaps you would be wise to understand the difference in applying via the President and applying for naturalisation via the provincial administration. The two are not the same, and this guy being refused from the President is nothing remarkable. The Presidential route is intended for those that are outstanding in their field - it's not meant for ordinary Joe. Nothing has changed from the previous administration in this respect.


Imagine if the same had been said about you? Would you liked to have lived in the UK, always being the 'foreigner' because you couldn't get British citizenship?


If you want to follow that line, you might as well take citizenship away from many lazy, unproductive Polish citizens too.

Law / Refused Poland's citizenship from Polish president, what to do now? [47]

If you've lived here for 10 years, married for 6 and can document everything you've been doing, you should apply for naturalisation through the Urzad Wójewodzki.

You only need to pass the B1 exam in Polish, which should be easy for anyone that's lived here for 10 years.

Life / Specific information about Polish healthcare system? [17]

No. You don't pay anything if you visit a doctor that has a contract with the national (public) health fund. Doesn't matter what kind of doctor it is - if they have the contract, you're covered as long as your national health insurance is valid.

If your visit isn't covered by the national health fund, then you either pay, or your insurance company pays.

Food / Where can I find halal butchery in Warsaw? [28]

You mean you couldn't spend two seconds on Google?

poland-muslims.de.tl/Sklepy-Halal.htm

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]


Nah, work related. I was trying to make a point about how crap our social media presence is.

While we're at it, what about a more technical question?

I understand "obcokrajowiec" to be a foreigner. But what about cudzoziemiec? My dictionary says they are synonyms, but is this really the case? I've noticed that obcokrajowiec tends to be used in less formal situations whereas cudzoziemiec is more formal (for instance, in a legal sense) - but is this true, or are they genuinely interchangable?

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [375]

You look American.

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1040]

Basically, it's a measure of how many comments, how many 'likes', how many 'retweets', how many views - it's a sort of catch-all term.

But zaangażowanie seems to be the word I was looking for, thank you Polonius :)