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


Not really, because the złoty and the WIG20 are still significantly weaker than they were before the election.

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


Their tax plan has already destroyed the WIG20. PKO BP are in freefall, and the latest news about putting yet another inexperienced puppet (his previous expertise involved being the deputy director of finance in some village) in charge of KGHM will destroy the WIG20 further.


Ah, Putinism at its finest. Witness how the Russian economy is flour...oh.

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


Yup, the catastrophic fall in the value of the WIG20 and the value of the złoty confirms that it is lifting Poland from her knees and throwing her straight down on her face.

UK, Ireland / The "Paracetamol Myth" - Polish people hesitate to visit UK doctors. [46]


If you want a good laugh, read the online forums for Polish mothers in the UK. Many of the wealthier ones will pay large amounts of money to go to private Polish gynaecologists (or even fly back home...) simply because they can't understand why the midwife isn't immediately referring them to the gynaecologist and making sure that they return home with vast amounts of medicine after every visit.

Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]


Happened recently with my wspólnota, but unfortunately, the guy was in such a mess financially that they wouldn't entertain any offers below 70% of the value of the property. Pity, because if his debt to the wspólnota was his only debt, we could've got the place for 30% of the market value :(

UK, Ireland / The "Paracetamol Myth" - Polish people hesitate to visit UK doctors. [46]


Same problem with NFZ doctors. My NFZ doctor is fantastic (you can usually get an appointment even if you call after 10am!) and so there's no reason to use a private GP, but the shopping list of medicine always makes me laugh. I remember wondering why on earth anyone would spend 30zł on some probiotics when you could just buy perfectly good Kaufland probiotic drinks for about 80gr each that did the same job and tasted far better.

I remember once having a diabolical migraine and only really needing an injected painkiller to get some rest. I came away with 4 different things prescribed as well as getting the injection. 12 hours later after a good sleep, the migraine was gone ;)

Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

Walk away from that agent. He/she is talking nonsense (common story...) - and it should be a warning sign that they simply don't know what they're talking about.

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


PO+Nowoczesna+ZL won over 50% of the vote in Świnoujście and Szczecin.


Isn't it just? It proves the whole thing about Nord Stream 'blocking' Szczecin was again just cheap xenophobia and that they have no real interest in Szczecin as a port. Nevermind the fact that the S3 will be complete within a few years and that Szczecin could be expected to become a major port for traffic from the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia.

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

It gets better and better.

Now we see that PiS refuse to fund the dredging of the Swinjouscie-Szczecin canal - which needs to be done yearly to keep Szczecin as a viable port. :D

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


Except the research showed that it was actually the most objective of the broadcasters.

Stop repeating PiS propaganda.

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


No, the Polish Thatcher is yet to come. My gut feeling is that the 2019 election is going to be based on a Polish Thatcher turning up, pointing out the utter mess over the last 4 years and promising to decisively and quickly privatise profitable businesses and close state-owned companies that are losing money. It will be a straight fight between the socialism of PiS vs the liberalism of the Thatcherite candidate, nothing more.


Problem is, hating his guts became associated with supporting PiS. It's the same reason why a lot of normal people are sick and tired of hearing about all these historical figures, because it's all associated with PiS. It's very tragic.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


I should probably be careful as to what I say here, but I've noticed that the difference between a reasonable Polish teacher of English and a great Polish teacher of English is how much effort they put into learning articles properly. I wish I could go into more details... perhaps one day.

Having said that, it only makes me annoyed when teachers of English make mistakes with it. For normal people, I don't even notice or care.

As for Polish, one thing I've noticed is that a lot of case endings are quite instinctive after a while.

And Lzyko, I suggest that part of the reason they get on at you is because of your attitude towards their mistakes. They make mistakes in English - but really, who cares?

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

When you think about it, Jarosław is probably one of the absolute best politicians in Europe today. He's managed to create an entire political cult with him at the helm, and no matter what disgusting things he does, the 25% or so of society that supports PiS blindly continue to do so regardless. But the whole strategy has been devastatingly effective - he built up a media empire that treats him like some sort of demigod (Gazeta Polska awarding him the title of 'human of the year' is a great example), he's brainwashed a lot of the poor that he is their only saviour and much more. Yet - you can clearly see that he has no real convictions. He jumped on the Catholic bandwagon when it became obvious that the winds were blowing that way, yet he backed off on many things that the RCC was expecting from him such as a ban on abortion. He jumped on the miners cause, yet abandoned them post-election. Poland is becoming a laughing stock internationally, people are getting poorer because of these taxes, yet the cult still continues to worship him. It's surreal.

...well, it would be surreal, if it wasn't bloody obvious that he was simply using exactly the same tactics as the PZPR used. The simplistic language, the heavy use of the media, the cult of the leader - it's all straight out of communism. Even the crude way in which PiS supporters abuse the opposition is very reminiscent of how the PZPR did the same to their enemies.

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


Making up stuff again Greggy, given that opinion polls are showing that they lost the centrist electorate very quickly.


I suspect they're going to try and change the local election laws to help them. But you're right - it's still a long time until those elections, and if they take a beating in those elections and the European ones a few months afterwards, they're going to have nowhere to go.

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


There will be a vote, but PiS will try and manipulate it as much as possible.

The only thing saving Poland right now is that PiS don't have control over most provinces.

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


Still, the Finns got it right - they conducted thorough non-partisan research into education, then threw money at the entire system from top to bottom.

As for the money from the state, we all know that we're going to see endless media reports of how people are spending the money on vodka, golf fees and gym memberships. Even ordinary PiS members have been very open about how it's desperately unfair that wealthy people will also be gaining and yet there won't be any controls on what the money is spent on.


It's a huge gift for Russia. They had a minor foothold into the EU with Orban, but to have Poland pushing away so hard from European norms is a huge gift to him. He knows fine well that an isolated Poland is a weak Poland.


Greggy, I wasn't aware that you also thought about gay sex constantly.


Exactly. If that guy from Razem hadn't pulled off the debate performance of a lifetime, ZL would have taken 10% and PiS would have been left to form a very messy coalition with Kukiz.


They don't care, as long as they get TKM.

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


Well, given that their decisions involve destroying the country... more to the point, PiS are usually all talk when it comes to not being liberal - they've gone very cold on the idea of banning abortion for instance.


I have everything against short term populism/electoral sausage policies. Poland was on the right track, but throwing away a lot of money on misguided socialist policies is a terrible idea because we need that money for tomorrow. I would much rather see 500zł extra spent on every child's education a month - for the 17 billion or so that it's going to cost, we could have an amazing educational system.

More to the point, it's obvious that the money for these socialist policies is coming from the ordinary man in the street. The banks aren't losing money (they've just increased fees), the supermarkets aren't losing money (they'll just raise prices/squeeze their suppliers) - so who loses? We do.

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


This is most definitely not in Poland. The fact that someone even thought that it was acceptable to take 20 million złoty from hospices to give to a priest is unbelievable.


PiS are not leading anything, because they're actually one of the most socialist parties in Europe right now. A true conservative party would seek to devolve as much power away from central government as possible.

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

Not really - Nowoczesna and PO are more or less one party when it comes to opposing PiS. Kukiz'15 have also backed off from their previous blind support of PiS.

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


Polonius, you might be suspended at the minute, but the latest TNS Polska poll suggests rather the opposite.

ewybory.eu/sondaz-tns-polska-dla-faktu-29-01-2016

PiS 31.2%
Nowoczesna 24%
PO 21.1%
Kukiz 9.5%

News / Let's protest censorship in Poland's mainstream media! [90]

How much are PiS paying you to write this?

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

Further examples of "good change" comes with one of the most blatant political bribes in recent years.

wyborcza.pl/1,75478,19547164,pis-przekazal-20-mln-zl-na-szkole-o-tadeusza-rydzyka.html?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=SM&utm_campaign=FB_Gazeta_Wyborcza


In other words, Rydzyk has been given 20 million złoty in exchange for his political support of PiS.

"Good Change", indeed.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]

Thank you Ziemowit, it's nice to read an insight like this. What you're saying about the similarities causing problems is what my Czech-speaking friend says - that if she doesn't visit the CR for a while, she just starts speaking Czech with Polish pronunciation.


Yes, I was reading about this only today - it was one of those mysteries that suddenly made a lot more sense when reading about the history of it. From an orthography point of view - could rz be dropped these days and completely replaced with ż?


Now this, I didn't know! It has to be said that I really don't like the use of the Latin alphabet in Slavic languages - it just doesn't seem to fit very well. Czech orthography is messy and Polish isn't any better. I always found it curious that Gaj based the Croatian alphabet on Czech as well.

This might interest you - steen.free.fr/cyrpol - I wouldn't want it, but it does seem to make more sense than the messy Latin.

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


I'm not sure, because no-one has ever heard of JK having a "shack-up" as Polonius would put it.

Ah, these PiS trolls will do anything to divert from the reality that the Ministry of Finance yesterday made it clear that they cannot support the 500zł per child project.

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


You made the claim that he was living with women while he wasn't married to them. That means he was living in sin according to Catholic doctrine. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's all becoming very clear now - the cost of living is going up considerably for Poles, and it's all because of PiS having made many election promises that were simply unfunded. There's no miracle 50 billion złoty lying in unpaid VAT, there's no massive amount of PIT and CIT evasion - the money simply isn't there. The retail tax and the bank tax represents a huge tax increase for ordinary Poles, with no sign of anything in return.

The bank tax is hurting Polish people more. Foreign companies can simply loan money in their home market and use it to fund their plans in Poland. Polish companies don't have such luxuries. Foreign supermarkets can simply demand lower margins from their suppliers, who will simply increase the margin when it comes to selling to smaller businesses that don't have that kind of negotiating power.

Far from being "good change", Poles are walking into a high tax nightmare where the government is increasing tax after tax to pay for some completely misguided socialist promises.

Language / Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D [1558]


Exactly. Czech is just as difficult as Polish (if not more so for English speakers - ř is a dreadful letter and far more difficult than rz for English speakers), yet Polish and Czechs can pick up the languages without much effort.

Then there's stuff like Kashubian, which is downright bonkers compared to Polish.

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


Strange, I thought he was supposed to be a devout Catholic. Does that mean that he was living in sin? Disgraceful.

Incidentally, I see that they've finally found his long lost thesis.

News / Let's protest censorship in Poland's mainstream media! [90]

Of course it's PiS propaganda. Polskie Radio has actually been writing very balanced coverage for years - but as is normal for PiS, anything that doesn't constantly praise PiS and criticise the opposition is propaganda.

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


It's what makes him such an amazing opportunist. Like almost all of his political positions, he has no real views, only the views that will win him votes.

Real Estate / Cost to build in Eastern Poland - Ideally per m2 [71]


That's because anyone that can do an honest job has already left.