POLISH NEWS BYTES

Compiled by Robert Strybel, Warsaw Correspondent
(Updated 4 January 2025)

No secure Europe without US military commitment – Duda In his final New Year’s address to the nation, President Andrzej Duda stressed the importance of US military and financial involvement in NATO. “Our first priority during the (rotating, six-month) Polish Presidency of the EU Council is to strengthen EU-US cooperation,” he explained. Duda, whose term in office ends in August, also blamed Tusk’s coalition government for the growing cost of living, allegedly violating the Constitution and plunging the country into legal chaos by trying to undo the previous administration’s judicial reforms.

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Most Poles believe Kyiv should give up land for peace For the first time since Putin’s illegal 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a slim majority of Poles now believe the war in Ukraine should end even if it requires Kyiv to cede part of its territory or independence. Such were the findings from a regular survey by Polish state pollster CBOS. The poll found that 55% of respondents believe it is best to “strive above all for an end to the war and return of peace even if Ukraine has to give up part of its territory or part of its independence”. CBOS notes that that view has been steadily gaining traction: in November 2022, only 24% of Poles held such an opinion, and recently exceeded 50% for the first time.

In Lviv PM Tusk calls on West to step up aid to Ukraine During an unannounced visit to Ukraine, Polish PM Tusk called appealed to Western countries in NATO and the EU to strengthen support for Ukraine and to “stop speculating about a possible defeat.” He also pledged Poland’s backing for Ukraine’s EU Union and NATO bid. For his part. For his part, Zelensky assured that “progress had been made” to ease tensions over the two countries’ view of WW2 controversies. Poland demands the exhumation and Christian burial of all still accessible remains of up t 100,000 Polish genocide victims slaughtered by rampaging Ukrainian nationalists.

Polish minimum wage grows slightly from 1 January With the start of the new year, Poland’s minimum monthly wage increased to 4,666 złotys (or $1,135), up from 4,300 złotys ($1,037) during the second half of 2024. The hourly wage has grown to 30.18 (thirty złotys and eighteen groszy), the US equivalent of $7.42.

Warsaw ready to rush energy aid to Ukraine – Warsaw has said Poland was prepared to provide Kyiv with electricity from the Polish energy grid after pro-Kremlin Slovakia switched off its power supply to Ukraine on 1 January. That came in retaliation to Ukraine’s refusal to renew a deal which ended on 1 January 2025, allowing Russia to pipe gas across Ukrainian territory to Slovakia and Western Europe. Ukrainian President Zelensky welcomed the move, saying it would limit the Kremlin’s gas revenues which have bankrolled Putin’s nearly three-year-old blood-bath in Ukraine.

Duda vetoes bill restricting foreign media ownership Fearing that pro-Kremlin propaganda would gain a major foothold in Poland, PM Tusk rushed a bill through parliament barring foreign investors from holding a controlling stake in Polish media. The bill was specifically meant to prevent a Hungarian investor from acquiring Poland’s US-owned TVN network which boasts the country’s most popular news channel. But President Duda refused to sign it into law, arguing that it undermined a Polish-US free-trade agreement from the 1990s. There had also been talk that Fox News was interested in TVN.

Poland follows L&J line stiffening migration and asylum rules Poland’s ruling liberal-centrist-leftist coalition has approved a package of bills intended to toughen migration and asylum regulations with the aim of “restoring control” of the country’s borders.” The proposed measures include allowing the government to temporarily suspend the right to claim asylum. “We do not want to hinder the employment of those who want to work honestly in Poland,” explained PM Donald Tusk, “but we have launched a ruthless fight against illegal immigration and the exploitation of legal loopholes.” Such had been the stance of the previous Law & Justice government which Tusk once attacked and ridiculed.

Poland snubs Hungary at EU presidential gala A glittery gala in Warsaw to mark the start of Poland’s presidency of the EU Council was attended by Polish and foreign VIPs and members of the Diplomatic Corps, but Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán and its ambassador were not welcome. Formerly warm relations between Warsaw and Budapest are now in the freezer after Hungary granted political asylum to a wanted fugitive Polish deputy minister suspected of corruption. Earlier, Orbán’s pro-Kremlin stance and meetings with Putin had already raised eyebrows in Warsaw.

EU threatens Poland’s sovereignty – conservatives argue Boleslaus the Brave (Bolesław Chrobry) became Poland’s first king upon receiving papal consent to his coronation 1,000 years ago. Now, according to the conservative group Ortdo Iuris (Judicial Order), radical Brussels Eurocrats are threatening that sovereignty by attempting to turn the 27-nation bloc into a single State of Europe. Ordo Iuris has drafted a document outlining the key areas in which the Eurocrats would deprive Polish citizens of their inalienable right to decide their country’s fate at the polls. Each day, the list of signatures on a petition to prevent that take-over is growing,

Trump visit would complete a cycle during Duda’s final months President Andrzej Duda’s final seven months in office will feature a busy schedule of international engagements including a NATO summit in The Hague, a Bucharest Nine meet-up in Vilnius and the World Economic Forum in Davos. Duda will also host a Three Seas Initiative summit in Warsaw to which Donald Trump has been invited. His attendance would complete a full cycle, begun when he attended the group’s 2017 summit, pledging strong US support for the 12-nation initiative.

Work-Free Wigilia Act signed into law President Duda has signed into law legislation making Christmas Eve a work-free day off for all except emergency services. Although Wigilia is the Poles’ single most important holiday, UP until 2024, stores remained open and people worked until 1 PM on the 24 December. Only then could they finish hectic preparations for the festive, once-a-year supper, and many had to travel across the country to spend it with their families. Christmas Eve will be a day off starting in 2025. To offset the loss of state-budget revenues, a third Sunday in December will become a shopping day.

Electoral Commission reverses earlier anti-L&J decision In a surprise move, Poland’s National Electoral Commission has accepted the campaign-financing report of the opposition Law and Justice (L&J) party, reversing its earlier rejection thereof. That means the party will not lose millions of zlotys in public funding. The change, which has rattled the Tusk camp, came as a result of a Supreme Court ruling overturning the commission’s previous decision to strip L&J of public funding over its alleged misuse of campaign funds. But the Tusk-led coalition questions the legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber, which overturned the anti-L&J decision, so most likely the wrangling is far from over.

Poland officially ends cooperation with Russia’s Intersputnik In practice, Poland stopped cooperating with the Russian-based International Space Communications Organization, commonly known as Intersputnik, after Putin launched his illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Now it has become official after President Duda recently signed into law two bills that formally end Poland’s participation in Intersputnik activities. “Termination of the agreement in line with recommendations to refrain from cooperation with representatives of Russia,” Duda’s office explained.

Poland buys ex-university building for its new DC embassy Poland has purchased a former building of John Hopkins University, located on Massachusetts Avenue in a prestigious area of Washington, DC near the White House, the US State Department and Capitol Hill. The real estate was acquired for slightly over $20 million to serve as Poland’s new embassy. The multi-story structure had previously housed the university’s Political Science Department. It will now undergo a four-year renovation to adapt it for diplomatic use.

Poland’s first tricycle-delivery micro-hub launched in Poznań GLS (General Logistics Systems), an international courier company, has launched Poland’s first parcel micro-hub in the west-central city of Poznań. It was designed to reduce CO2 emissions and improve urban delivery efficiency. Normal delivery vans transport parcels to the hub which are transferred to three-wheeled, courier-pedaled micro-vans for final delivery to customers. This system also allows couriers to avoid traffic jams and reach areas where motor vehicles have difficulty accessing. (15^th item)

Drunken Polish soldier shoots up family traveling in car A 23-year-old Polish army private opened fire on a civilian car in which a married couple and their kids were traveling. The incident occurred in the town of Mielnik in NE Poland’s Podlaskie region bordering Belarus and Lithuania. The couple’s teenage daughter jumped out of the bullet-riddled car and fled to safety in a nearby forest. Although the soldier had fired more than 60 rounds of ammunition with an automatic weapon, almost miraculously no-one was injured. A military court charged the gunman with abuse of authority and illegal use of a firearm with intent to kill, and placed him under three-month pre-trial detention.