Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

for buying 1 (one) house to live in, you can buy it yourself as no permit is required, not even for non-EEA citizens, as long as the house does not sit on an area >10k m2 (1 hectare) and is not in a border zone: biznes.gov.pl/pl/opisy-procedur/-/proc/209 , powroty.gov.pl/nieruchomosci-nie-wymagajace-zezwolenia-9953 so for "normal" buyers of apartments or family homes, this is a non-issue. Farmland (>5k m2) is another matter.

the list of places which are in border zones and are an exception from the exception, ie they require a permit, is here: sip.lex.pl/akty-prawne/dzu-dziennik-ustaw/wykaz-gmin-i-innych-jednostek-zasadniczego-podzialu-terytorialnego-17221212

source: isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU19200310178/U/D19200178Lj.pdf see. art 8/1, which is valid for all foreigners. EEA citizens have an advantage when they want to buy a 2nd home or farmland (see art. 8/2).

News / The Fur is Flying! Animal Rights in Poland [87]

Fantastic timing. Last week, the president and prime minister were touring thanksgiving festivities thanking polish farmers in lofty words for their hard work and promising continued support for the development of rural areas. This week, the same party introduces a bill eliminiating the export of halal meat worth more than one billion Euro per year ( halalfocus.net/poland-to-start-exporting-beef-to-israel/ ) and the market is growing with Poland having a competitive advantage and the importers like Israel and UAE are known for paying top dollar.

The fur export market is not so big, but an additional 200 Million Euro would be lost and probably more if there is local production.
Sure, in total, these products account for only close to 1% of the whole export market but how wealthy is this country really to forgoe such lucrative markets? It will also negatively affect the core constituents of PiS disproportionally heavy. Are they tired of ruling or what? Aid to Lithuania (where the fur producers will likely go) and Ukraine/Belarus (halal meat- since the export markets are mostly outside of the EU, EU membership means zilch to these producers)?

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


who would have thought one week ago, that Wojciechowski will be confirmed unanimously, yet the French nominee will fail?

the main reason why his performance the 2nd time was much better:


euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/not-getting-lost-in-translation-wojciechowski-wins-nod-from-meps/
multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/pl/hearing-of-janusz-wojciechowski-commissioner-designate-agriculture_13217_pk

News / So rate but good deeds of Polish politicians [9]

twitter.com/Policja_KSP/status/1181512074792509441

What really happend seems to be that the driver who caused the accident (a policeman himself) got his son himself out of the car after the accident and the first one to help him was a young women. Only after everybody was already safe, it so happened that another car came along whose driver - that Biedroń guy - graciously let her place the toddler in his car to keep him warm. Stipulating that this version Warsaw Police is telling here is true, the self proclaimed heroism of Biedroń is nowhere to be seen. He is at best a funny storyteller and good in posing in front of a camera, but he might also simply be called a liar.

Of course, the police` social media team could also be misrepresenting the facts here, but if two versions of a story exist and the good version comes from a politican only a couple of days before an election, I am inclined to believe the other version a tiny bit more.

Language / Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation [1756]


quoting I guess Tomek from the 1st season of rodzinka.pl: w dechę? - tak dwadzieścia lat temu mówili na wypasione.

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


we might now know why he is drinking so much. He is currently under investigation of forging the signature of his (now) ex-wife under two bills of exchange in 2009, that were used as collateral for a mortage. After he missed payments this year, the bank wanted to collect the money from her and she now claims that the signature is not hers and she never saw the documents. When you look at one of those documents, it seems apparant, that both signatures have been written by the same guy: wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/kamil-durczok-weksel-na-2-mln-frankow-byla-zona-marianna-dufek-podejrzewa-ze-podrobiono-jej-podpis

but the DA hired a handwriting expert to confirm the obvious. I still cannot believe, that what is making the rounds is the real, actual document. The forgery is absurdly obvious, but we are supposed to believe that the bank is accepting such a piece of paper as collateral for 2 mln. CHF without even bother to ask her if that is really her signature? Anyway, he probably has run out of money and he is facing a long time behind bars (it seems that for such a crime, 5 year incarcaration is the minimum sentence, to which the drunk driving charges are almost peanuts). What a fall from grace.

Travel / Using Polish Drivers License abroad [2]

in all EEU states (== European Union plus Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein) and Switzerland. For others, the locally obtainable międzynarodowe prawo jazdy can be used in selected countries listed here:

obywatel.gov.pl/kierowcy-i-pojazdy/uzyskaj-miedzynarodowe-prawo-jazdy

it might just not be so easy anmore to weasel out of traffic tickets as it was in the past:
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/4732923/Prawo-Jazdy-Identity-of-Irelands-most-notorious-driver-uncovered.html

Law / Debt in Poland - inheritance after relative death? [14]

in the past, it was indeed the case that if you did not declare in the first six months of inheriting debt that you do not want it, that you were liable for the debts of the deceased to 100%. But since 2017, the new law limits the liability to what is valuable in the inheritance meaning that the worst case is that you get zero, but they cannot come after you for anything more. Nevertheless, it might we wise to consult an attorney, because there are some caveats in connection with mortgages.

You might want to read: kancelariamadejczyk.biz/dziedziczenie-dlugow-2017-prawo-spadkowe/ in polish.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

the text of the new art. 55a Ustawa o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej the Senate voted is here on page 5:
senat.gov.pl/download/gfx/senat/pl/senatekspertyzy/4547/plik/722m.pdf

naród polski and państwo polski seems clear to me that this does not concern individual targets. You can still claim that the nation or the government did perpetrate these crimes, you just have to be an artist or a scientist doing your profession (art. 55a/3).

News / EU triggers Article 7, could strip Poland of voting rights [91]

for what it's worth, I learned a bunch of new words today:

darmozjad parasite
komisarz ludowy some kind of PRL officer
moczymorda alcoholic, człowiek nadużywający alkoholu (although I think that would be better attributabe to Jean-Claude "resident creep" Juncker)
folksdojczka Volksdeutscher, Volksdeutsche (not sure if that refers to male or female)
kołchoźnik member of a collective farm

Only komuch I already knew. And these are probably the more nicer attributes for that Timmerthingy guy, since they were printed in the comments section of various news articles. A guy that btw freakishly reminds me of Erich Mielke. Both claimed that they always only wanted "the best" for the people.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


sure. The law is modeled after those in place in some other parts of Europe. First of all, it is only applicable to retail - bars and restaurants are not retail stores. Then there are numerous exceptions - shops at railway stations, airports, gas stations - all may be open 24h/d.

And somebody seems to have heard your concerns and specifically introduced exemptions for "piekarnie, cukiernie i lodziarnie" even when there are employees present which led to some speculation that even big supermarkets may open their doors on sundays if they have a bakery inside.

Other exceptions: "apteki, kwiaciarnie, sklepy z pamiątkami i dewocjonaliami, kioski, stoiska przy cmentarzach". The courts will have a field day in deciding which shops fall into which of that numerous exempt categories.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]

Every journalists and his grandmother should be on the lookout about CVC Capital Partners having made any contributions to the PiS party this year. CVC owns the Żabka brand and its franchising network. Żabki will continue to be exempt from the sunday trading ban if they are owner operated (which it seems that almost all of them are because they all are open on days where trading is already banned today, e.g. on 11.11.).

In Hungary, they tried the same thing. Ban trading on sunday but leave the door open for owner operated stores. It is said that the owners of the CBA franchise chain, that operates like Żabka, paid a good amount into the coffers of Orbán's Fidesz to convince him. It did not work out well though because due to public pressure, the ban was cancelled in 2016. It still might work in Poland because according to recent CBOS polling, 58% favor the sunday closure.

News / President Duda rules out homo marriage in Poland as banned by the constitution [172]

[moved from]

The actual wording of law is mostly only important in criminal law, but in constitutional law, the law is what (in the case of Poland) the TK says it is. The TK weighed in on this matter in 2011 and opined that a law legalizing same-sex partnerships with (almost) the same benefits as a marriage would co stanowi naruszenie obowiązku szczególnej ochrony małżeństwa, jako trwałego związku heteroseksualnego, meaning that the court attributes a marriage to be a heterosexual union.

ordoiuris.pl/rodzina-i-malzenstwo/opinia-sadu-najwyzszego-w-sprawie-projektu-ustawy-o-zwiazkach-partnerskich

Marriage being defined as a union between a man and a woman is also the prevailing interpretation from legal scholars, e.g. : określa małżeństwo jako związek kobiety i mężczyzny., i.e. it requires it without ambiguity.

Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej wypracowania24.pl/wos/2904/konstytucja-rp-art-18

Another legal scholar comes to the same conclusion by analyzing the supporting material that was released before the 1997 referendum. The text was chosen with the: intencja wykluczenia prawnej instytucjonalizacji związków osób tej samej płci, so with specific intention to exclude same-sex couples from this institution.

ordoiuris.pl/rodzina-i-malzenstwo/malzenstwo-jako-zwiazek-kobiety-i-mezczyzny-o-niektorych-implikacjach-art-18

To summarize: it is not only defined that a marriage is a union between a man and a woman, it is even - in the opinion of the supreme court - a violation of the constitution to create a law granting the privileges of marriage to other form of cohabitation, even when using another name.

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


no. Judges on the German TK (BVerfG) are elected by parliament for a single 12-year term and they cannot be removed before their term ends. A judge only loses his job after a criminal conviction. In reality of course, the government chooses the judge and election by parliament is mostly a formality since the goverment's part(ies/y) has a majority.

This is the same process as in all other western countries. Appointment is by democratically elected officials, but removal is not possible.

That now in Poland it should be possible for the goverment to cancel the terms of already serving judges on the TK is an anomaly, but one could argue that it might be prudent to make a one-off restart in order to eliminate the remaining remnants of the PRL. A restart that should have been performed at least 25 years ago though.

News / Dodgy PRL-holdover judiciary finally reformed [420]

There is no thing as a totally independent judicial system because that would be undemocratic. In all western democracies, the members of the supreme courts are appointed by elected bodies. In the USA, this is the president in combination with the senate. In Germany, for the highest civil and criminal court, it is a commission composed of the 16 regional ministers of justice and 16 members of parliament and for the constitutional court, it is parliament itself who elects the judges. In the US, ever lower court judges are political appointees.

Of course what follows is that if one party dominates the legislative chambers over a long time, the judiciary will follow suit. It is up to the electorate to decide if another party should have the chance to reshape the judiciary.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]


I don't. Japan also had a vast colonial empireen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_colonial_empire where they ruled with an iron fist. They were humiliated to a greater extent than Germany in 1945 yet there is not a hint of any guilt in Japanese society. It is common understanding in Japan they their culture is unique and has to be preserved, they do let invader.. erm., asylum seekers only in minuscule amounts into the country (number of asylum grants in 2016: 28. no, that is not 28 thousand, that is twenty-eight: reuters.com/article/us-japan-asylum-idUSKBN15O0UV). The Japanese do something differently or are wired differently, I do not know.

On the other side, this autogenocidal cancer of opening all borders has even affected peoples who have already been victims of conquests themselves like the Poles or - most suprisingly for me - the Estonians, who themselves were driven close to extinction only one generation ago. Yet they also voted in the EU to receive muslim invad.., erm., "migrants". Just baffling.

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


according to cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/countries/PL , from the 2014-2020 ESI budget, €4,31/18,25zł bln have been spent so far. If he was talking about 20, he was actually generously rounding it up.

For sure, the bulk of the budget is still in planning stage but since money only flows for actual expenses, he is more than correct so far.

News / New European Council's report: "Poland oasis of racism, xenophobia and homophobia" ... [343]

m.fronda.pl/a/najpierw-zabita-wiewiorka-teraz-opluta-muzulmanka-kolejna-kompromitacja-gw,95295.html

Lublin police says that nothing happend. As if the police during a time when there are boatloads of soccer fans in town would have anything else to do than to follow up complaints about being treated not overly nice. They should save their outrage when they are getting raped - which will happen sooner or later as soon as they are back in Germany anyway.

Language / Some German loan-words in Polish language [17]

there has been a whole book written about that subject but here is a first collection:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanizm