Achievements of the Tusk's Polish government

Like the plain and simple truth that Tusk's government is fighting corruption (especially among its own ranks) heh :)

You must be blind if you can`t see that Poland managed to go through the crisis quite unharmed under Tusk`s leadership. The economic growth never went below the line, while other countries dropped significantly. We already talked about the GNP prognosis for this year, Poland is catching up with others systematically, e.g., Hungary, which has always been ahead of us.

Of course, all Tusk bashers will say it wasn`t his merit, bla bla bla, someone/something else did it etc etc....

Can I start laughing already at how pathetically predictable you are? :):):):)

Lustration and spying on journalists was exactly that.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

Take a look at the rankings. And yes, they show clearly that Tusk's government has been failing in this respect too - probably due to the way that they've failed to "unpoliticise" TVP and Polskie Radio.

I don't think it's much of a secret that PiS would viciously attack the freedom of the press if elected - Kaczynski already made it clear that people who oppose "the truth" should be punished.

As for why it's a bad idea - journalists should be free to work without political inference. While Gazeta Polska and suchlike have been posting horrible things, even speculating about Komorowski's health - it's still their right to publish what they wish.

Building stadiums, so they can be closed. Promising lower taxes, to pick them up.

Worth pointing out that the stadium in Poznan, although closed for the Lech game, was open for the Warta game.

The public debt in Poland has skyrocketed in recent years, which means that we'll hit the 60% limit soon and will have to have surplus to regulate that debt, which will slow down Polish economy significantly in a couple of years. I don't know which is worse - to have the economy stagnate now or in future, maybe if the worldwide crisis will endup soon we won't need state's money all that much.


Very few reforms have immediate effect. In case of reforming higher education system and supporting science, it certainly is necessary, we have to make our country more innovative, otherwise we'll have very little to offer in future when salaries will go up and cheap work force won't Poland's biggest advantage.

I think the whole idea is that while running up debts now (still pretty low by European standards), Poland will be able to pay those debts back while things pick up. It's a risky strategy, but I suspect the Estonian Alternative (slashing public jobs, salaries and welfare) would have been seen as a complete no-no.

Tusk will be judged not by this government, but by his actions in the 2011-2015 period.

what we need is first not to let the level of education degrade (especially technical education) as it does now - unless Polish people are supposed to be dishwashers around Europe

Assuming PO wins the election again. I didn't vote for PO in 2007 (I did in 2005 though), but I was glad they won with such a huge margin as I thought it meant more legislative changes. But no, they did much less than they should have.

National debt is relatively small, but we set the 60% limit for a reason, we don't want to wind up like Greece or Japan.

I think a lot of people are willing to give them another chance (not least because the alternative is too scary to think about) - but if they win this year, they'll have three years in which to enact all the legislation they want.

On a personal note, Tusk did well with the Orlik astroturf stadiums for free. I read a FB comment today that David Cameron is going to ask parents to pay for play areas (2.50). What a farce! It costs an arm and a leg to play on astroturf stadiums back home yet Tusk realised that it can be funded through taxpayers money. Poles need to stay fit and active as it has been scientifically proven that you are more alive and inclined to be productive if you play/do sport. I feel this to be the case if I don't overdo it.

So, well done to PO on that one!

Children from poor families are starving, so Tusk built expensive football pitches for them. Well done.

You shouldn't have children if you can't provide for them so let's stay on topic with Tusk's football priority, shall we? He did very well to encourage people to take up football if they hadn't already been players. When you make it too expensive, you create lethargic people and miss the chance to foster new talent.

Not succumbing to the swine flu plot.

To be fair, I think LK played a larger part in that, frd.

To be fair, I think it was Ewa Kopacz who had the largest part.

And from what I remember PiS members were crying about how swine flu is going to roll through Poland. (acting along the good old pis rhetorics to oppose everything po does)

Perhaps, frd. I've heard her name but am not really familiar with her. I'm no fan of Tusk but credit where credit is due. Malopolanin, I also have some socialist leanings but poverty requires separate treatment. Sport is to be encouraged, regardless of the state of poverty.

Me neither. I just remember some highlights, I know there were more but I'd have to google and look for them, I like watching the news every now and then but I'm not someone who read every political blog and newspaper and learns by heart every political fact. All these threads change to "who googles a political fact first" arguments anywyas ; o

I'm the same, frd. I think Tusk has been the quiet politician all along. Political commentators often made the point that his strategy was not to be spectacular but more to consolidate, make incremental changes in certain sectors and, above all, avoid costly blunders. Certain leaders get off with them, e.g Thatcher with her poll tax, but Tusk wouldn't.

Costly blunder and big reforms at the same time, which is a big downside of his gov, imo

But wouldn't most Poles expect no less of him than to reform the country? I can honestly say that the majority of Poles I have come into contact with have told me that the status quo has to be changed. Do you feel that Tusk and PO have been too interventionist? I think laissez-faire only works to a limited extent in the Polish governmental model.

Actually, there's no actual need for children to starve in Poland. When you look at what's available - even in Warsaw, there's absolutely no need for a child to starve - unless it's a result of parental failure. The limited social help available is still enough to put a roof over your head (granted, in 1 room) and food in your stomach - come on, I was just in the local shop and saw all sorts of vegetables available for 1zl a kilo.

levels of education are plummeting and the thing they spend money on is sport facilities - man not everyone is gonna play football for living - at the same time for Polish economy to grow we need more engineers

I don't think education levels are going down. Physical fitness cannot be underestimated.

I hope the Polish educational system doesn't abandon its focus upon the Humanities. Engineers are frightfully boring.

Liberal Arts graduates are terribly stuck up...on the other hand, tables will always need bussing.

I meant it in the opposite way. They avoid these costly blunders, as you called them, but in the same time they shun important (and costly) "difficult" reforms. They avoid reforms which could lose them votes. Tusk understands that huge junk of electorate thinks about now rather than later, hence he will prefer taking money from OFE over the reforms of KRUS or public service sector workers to name but a few. It's a very slow walk of making small and often pointless reforms and preserving the electorate.

I'm afraid that in the current situation, whoever wins the election will not have enough votes to push through difficult reforms. The moment they form the gov they'll think how to extend their time onto next and next elections in the years to come.


bottoms up!! ;)

Torq, I said they were boring that doesn't mean they don't serve some redeeming purpose. As for the abusive language you've used against me I must say that coming from you, an apologist for both the Habsburg imperialist domination of Southern Poland as well as the racist abomination that is Zionism, I don't feel you are qualified to judge me nor any other sane person on this discussion forum.

Aha, now I follow, frd :) Thanks for the clarification :)

This is about the achievements of Tusk's government. Can anyone actually show some of his manifesto pledges? The SNP did this in Scotland. They announced pledges and then showed how many they kept to. Can any Polish person here point me to his manifesto Vs reality?

if you mean it is Tusk`s fault, you are dropping bullshit. Levels had been lowered long before Tusk came to power. Besides, whose govenrment brought back Maths at matura exam?