POLISH NEWS BYTES
Compiled by Robert Strybel, Warsaw Correspondent
(Updated 25 November 2024)
Trump and Duda hold first post-election conversation Polish President Andrzej Duda spoke with US President-elect Donald Trump over the phone and later said: “I had an excellent call with President-elect Donald Trump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory. His tremendous campaign made this result possible. I praised his family and team for their great work. We agreed to maintain close dialogue and move our cooperation forward. Strong and unwavering US leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace.” Trump and Duda are due to meet shortly.
Poland no longer a Russian zone of influence – Duda The first permanent US military base in Poland shows “the whole world clearly that this is no longer a Russian zone of influence,” Polish President Andrzej stated recently. Some 10,000 GIs have been stationed in Poland for several years now, but they are accommodated in Polish military facilities. The recently opened air-defense base in the north Poland locality of Redzikowo is the first US-owned military installation on Polish soil. It is an updated version of the Bush-era Anti-Missile Shield scrapped by former president Obama while trying to cozy up to Putin over 20 years ago.
Poland’s US air-defense base a priority target for Kremlin Following an escalation of hostilities in the Russo-Ukrainian war, Kremlin bosses have specifically warned that the US air-defense base in Redzikowo. Poland will be a primary target for Russian missiles. Russia escalated the war by importing 11,000 North Korean Troops to fight in Ukraine and fired its first medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile at a Ukrainian site. That came in response to Ukraine’s use of US-, British- and French-made missiles deep inside Russia. An attack on Redzikowo would be a direct attack on NATO, and the US-led alliance would have to respond in line with its “all for one and one for all” doctrine. So far, no NATO state has directly attacked Russia, nor has Russia attacked NATO territory.
Tusk seen electioneering ahead of presidential election PM Donald Tusk has drastically reversed his position on illegals trying to crash through Poland’s border. Not long ago he described undocumented migrants as “poor people looking for their place in the world,” now both in Poland and the EU he has “out hawked” the hawkish migration policy of the Law & Justice opposition. His government has also frozen the price of electricity but only for nine months. He apparently wanted avoid harming his candidate’s chances by announcing a price hike of electricity price hike before the May election.
Protesting Polish farmers block border crossing with Ukraine Polish farmers have again blocked the key border crossing with in the eastern town of Medyka. They are protesting the Tusk government’s increase of its agricultural tax over its 2023 level. The farmers also oppose the EU’s trade agreement with Latin America’s producers in the Mercosur (Common Market of the South) countries which they regard as an economic threat to Poland’s farmlands. The protesters have prevented Ukrainian trucks from entering Poland and allow only one per hour to leave the country. Passenger cars, buses, humanitarian aid, and military vehicles are unaffected.
Left-leaning mayor voted Civic Coalition’s presidential candidate At a convention of Poland’s largest political party, the Civic Coalition (formerly Civic Platform), Warsaw’s current left-leaning Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski secured 75% of the votes in its primary ahead of Poland’s May 2025 presidential election. All of the some 30,000 of the party’s registered members were eligible to vote, and 22,126 actually did. Trzaskowski’s rival, centrist Radosław Sikorski, now Poland’s Foreign Minister, received 25% of the votes. Surveys show that both candidates could defeat any Law & Justice opponent.
Independent to run for Poland’s president on L&J ballot Karol Nawrocki was named the presidential candidate for the right-leaning conservative Law & Justice party, of which he is not a member. The center-right, 42-year-old historian, who once headed Gdańsk’s World War II Museum, is now president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). The IPN researches and prosecutes crimes against the Polish nation.
Half of Poles feel less secure after Trump victory – survey 51.1% of Poles said they felt less secure since the election of Donald Trump to the White House. 33% believe Poland’s security will not be affected and 15.9% were undecided. The survey was commissioned by the influential centrist daily Rzeczpospolita and carried out by pollster Ibris.
Dismissal of Poland’s top prosecutor unconstitutional – Tribunal Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has ruled that justice minister Adam Bodnar’s dismissal of top prosecutor Dariusz Barski, appointed under the former Law and Justice (L&J) government, was unconstitutional. After coming to power in December 2023, the Tusk-led government illegally took over Poland’s public media and began stacking the administration with its loyalists including Bodnar. It also questioned the validity of the L&J-reformed Tribunal and the judges appointed by L&J. The bipolar Polish-Polish war continues!
Sikorski suggests Ukraine take over Russian Consulate Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has suggested that Ukraine could take over the Russian consulate in the west-central city of Poznań after he expelled Russia from the site due to acts of sabotage against Poland. Back in October, Sikorski had ordered Russia to shut down the consulate, declaring its diplomats stationed there personae non gratae. Recently, the minister told journalists that Russia’s lease on the property expires at the end of November.
US TV network fined over hate-mongering documentary The National Radio & Television Council, Poland’s broadcast regulator, has fined the US-owned TVN network $33,000 over a hate-filled documentary slandering Redemptorist monk Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. Despite overwhelming obstacles, the Catholic broadcasting pioneer founded the internationally broadcast Radio Maria and TV Trwam (I endure) as well as the Toruń-based Academy of Social and Media Culture. His business acumen coupled with his austere monastic lifestyle have made him the bugbear of ex-communist, leftist and liberal politicians.
Wrocław mayor detained in corruption affair Jacek Sutryk, the mayor of Poland’s third largest city, has been detained as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption and other irregularities at Collegium Humanum (Latin for College of Humanities). Its offenses had included selling MBAs. Sutryk had used one such diploma to further his career. Under interrogation, he insisted the degree “was obtained in good faith.”
Polish turncoat judge flees Poland, gets asylum in Belarus Tomasz Szmydt, a former Polish judge suspected of espionage, has received political asylum and Belarusian citizenship. He fled the country in May 2024 and became the darling of Minsk and Moscow after publicly praising Belarusian dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka and denouncing Poland for allegedly suppressing free speech. If ever put on trial in Poland, he faces life imprisonment for grand treason.
Traveler named Poland’s Leader of the Year Marek Kamiński, 60, has received the Leader of the Year award from Polish President Andrzej Duda for his commitment to humanitarian causes. A worldwide traveler who speaks 8 languages, in the 1990s Kamiński was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles without outside assistance, and later conquered the highest Arctic peak. He was the first to travel nearly 19,000 miles to Japan across Siberia and the Gobi desert in a non-polluting electric car. Now Kamiński is mainly focused on the pro-societal efforts of the foundation, institute and company he set up to urge people to achieve their full potential.
Kraków academy becomes Poland’s AI center – TVP The Kraków-based Academy of Mining and Metallurgy has become the country’s principal AI research and development center. The home of Poland’s largest-capacity mega-computer, it will focus on areas of AI application including medicine, industrial automation and big-dataset analysis as well as questions of perfection, confidence, justification and resilience. Research team will meet periodically to discuss both purely technical issues as well as the ethical and social implications of potentially harmful AI technology.
Biden OKs long-range US missiles on Russian territory President Joe Biden has finally authorized Ukraine to respond in kind by striking targets on Russian territory with its long-range missiles. The UK and France have followed suit. The decision followed one of the war’s most massive aerial attacks on 17 November with 120 missiles and 90 drones targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The outgoing Biden administration has also rushed to give Kyiv a final $6 billion aid package
More Putinesque saber rattling or an actual threat? Putin recently fumed that the West was pushing mankind towards a global conflict but this time backed the warning up with his first hypersonic-missile strike on Ukraine. “It was a response to Western missiles used by Ukraine to hit targets in Russia,” he growled. Kyiv labeled his outrage the epitome of hypocrisy. Putin felt he could target sites anywhere in Ukraine with impunity but prohibited Kyiv from defending itself in kind.
Ukraine will lose war if US cuts military aid to Kyiv – Zelensky Speaking on the 1,000th day of Putin’s 2022 aggression, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News his country would lose the war if the US cuts its funding. “Unity in Ukraine is important as is unity with our partners, but the most important is our unity with the United States,” he emphasized. “We are now producing our own armaments and will fight on no matter what, but without US military assistance it will all be a losing proposition.
EU leaders debate options in case Trump cuts off US aid At a recent meeting in Budapest, European Union leaders discussed the possibility of extending Ukraine’s military defense if Donald Trump decides to cut off US support. They debated whether the EU would be willing to provide the required funding for military assistance to Kyiv. British PM Sir Keir Starmer has assured Ukrainian President Zelensky that UK support for Ukraine remains “iron-clad.”
