Poland's post-election political scene

Huh? Sure it makes more sense for the state to retain profitable businesses and only privatize those that are losing money. Privatization for the sake of privatization doesn't seem like a very well thought out plan...

It make no sense that the government owns businesses. Especially as politicians give jobs in those companies to their unqualified friends.That was Thatchers attitude and its been proven to be a very good idea in many countries all over the world.

State ownership, socialism, has been proven to be a failure.

as usual you only see one side of the coin - I assure you that PiS opponents use a very malicious and often primitive abuse forms on PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński and their supporters - and no this is nothing new it started with the anit-PiS media campaign in 2005

PiS is the one strong true Polish party bringing Poland back from foreign hands. They may not do everything right but they look after Polish business first and people respect PiS for that and it will be around now for a very very long time, Polish people will not let PiS go now, only foreign powers are working hard to make that party disappear.

So far everything they have done has been a mess.


They don't look after business at all, hence the soaring bond yields and lack of faith in the economy.


Respect them enough to give a spectacularly low approval rating and turn out on the streets by the thousand.


I doubt anyone, anywhere, would believe that.

they haven't done anything serious so far - maybe just sit and wait and don't judge beforehand

Attacking the constitution, antagonising the country's neighbours, threatening to tax shopping malls for opening on their busiest day, compromising the independence of state media.

If something more 'serious' is yet to come, they'd better expand the departures lounge at Okęcie first...

You are hysterical, PiS is merely changing the constitution for better and has a right to do so since anty Polish PO government introduced hostile laws to Poland's sovereignty.

Poland is one of friendliest countries, too friendly, we have not started antagonising anyone yet but we may if we are pushed too far, so calm down.

Government needs taxes, it is better to tax the richest than to borrow from EU, good move, not the best but the best in current situation.

They have no mandate to change the constitution, and their assaults on constitutional democracy have brought tens of thousands of people from all walks of life out onto the streets to attend the Polish pro-democracy rallies.


That government was Polish.


Do tell....

Jon357! I wonder if you even live in Poland since you seem completely unaware of what is happening.

Or just truthful and accurate. Most people here, especially the better educated, emphatically do not support the PiS regime, one that has caused the economy to dip, one which has attempted attacks in the constitution and one that has brought tens of thousands out in the streets to take part freely in the Polish pro-democracy rallies.

interpreting constitution differently than the PO yes - but it is open to interpretation


which neighbours and how?


the state media were willing supporters of the previous government - their propaganda tube - I don't call it objective or even independent media

Interpreting the constitution differently to pretty well everybody, including (most importantly) the judges on the Constitutional Tribunal.

Those who weren't appointed illegally by PiS and sworn in during the middle of the night, that is....

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

Stop repeating PiS propaganda.

which research? must have been TVP own :P

Exactly. So sad to see a few trolls trying to deliberately mislead people - I wonder if they think people are stupid enough to believe them.

Then again, 18% of people, pretty well all of them living out in the sticks, did vote for the discredited PiS party.

Says one foreigner to another about Polish citizens that got elected new authorities of their own country in free, democratic elections. No words :)))))

Nothing this weekend (I expect leaders to have left for the Alps for skiing ;)! Most probably all this will end very quickly. Most Poles have other priorities.

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

A voice in discussion. Matthew Tyrmand talks in Warsaw about many aspects of Poland's post-election political scene. He also talk in some length about reactions to the result of the last election in Poland in the leftie/liberal western media and their sources in Poland. In English.

@Delph: most Poles don't care about all this and I guarantee that within a few weeks, it'll be all finished. Now we have school winter breaks (in Mazowiecki from Feb. 1 to 15 and then in other regions) and I('m sure that a lot of those marching are now on the Alpine's ski slopes ;).

It appeared to be finished on Saturday (30 Jan). Desptie balmy weather for this time of year the marches have apparently run out of steam and people have better things to do with their Saturday off. Even Kijowski realised that and said on TV that KOD would have to rethink their strategy.Especially since the marches have accomplished only one thing: damaged Poland's international reputation. It's the sntichery that turned an internal political row into a continent-wide media circus and diverted Europe's attention away from the real problems facing the EU.

Barking mad given that they plan to spend billions on creating sea access for Elbąg. Does anybody happen to know which way those two cities vote?

That's not difficult when compared to PO-era propaganda tubes TVN, Polsat and Super Stacja. Now the national media really are becoming objective. An issue is being discussed on TVP and all the parties get a chance to express their views. That was not the case under Tusk/Kopacz. Everone other than the one, true, politically correct PO-PSL regime were treated as also-rans.

Polsat is actually not that bad - they have a couple of quite objective journalists there like say Dorota Gawryluk (some are though quite biased)

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.

@Pol3: so they finished on 30.1!!!! Well, school winter break starts today in Mazowiecki ;););) (and then later elsewhere) so I suppose that Petru is skiing somewhere in some wealthy ski resort in the Alps ;).

More seriously, although I mingle with mostly PO (and now some Petru's groupies), I can count people I know who feel concerned about all this on my fingers of only one hand. Even the very rich have other priorities (now, skiing in the Alps ;)).

For sure, all this was widely reported by foreign media.

As said many times, I am not for PiS and I am not for PO. However, I simply hate Petru and consorts because they are a real danger for 99.99% Poles. Most Poles would starve and have to move abroad for bread if Petru or consorts were in office but I seriously doubt that 50.01% of Polish voters would be stupid enough to let it be...

Merged: Polish saviour has arrived

PiS may not be perfect but it is party that is lifting Poland from its knees.

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.

they are very dangerous - totally inexperienced, profoundly cliquey, confrontational and should not be let anywhere near the economy, education or infrastructure or foreign policy.

if they want to talk about abortion or Smolensk then that's fine - keeps their incompetent hands off the important stuff.