Andrzej Duda’s visit comes as European leaders prepare for Trump’s possible return to White House
Andrzej Duda, Poland’s conservative president, is expected to meet Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday evening, as some European politicians begin preparing for Trump’s possible return to the White House.
Many mainstream European leaders fear the potential impact of a US that is less engaged on the continent, and less committed to the future of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Arrest at president’s residence of Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, of Law and Justice party, had sparked bitter political row
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, said he had pardoned two jailed politicians from the opposition populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which lost its majority in October elections, and called for their immediate release.
The former interior minister Mariusz Kamiński and his ex-deputy, Maciej Wąsik, were imprisoned this month after being detained in the presidential palace. Their arrests sparked large protests by PiS supporters and both began hunger strikes claiming to be “political prisoners”.
An earlier headline said the two pardoned men were former politicians. They are, in fact, current politicians and the headline has been corrected.
Continue reading...Law and Justice party won most votes in last month’s election but all other parties have ruled out working with them
Donald Tusk, who declared victory in last month’s Polish parliamentary election, will have to wait several weeks before having a chance to form a government after the president, Andrzej Duda, said he would offer the first chance to do so to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
PiS, the nationalist, populist party that has governed Poland for the past eight years, won the most votes of any party in the election but fell far short of a majority of seats in parliament. All other parties have ruled out entering a coalition with them, leaving them without any obvious path to retain power.
Continue reading...Trip is first time Ukrainian president and first lady have travelled abroad together since Russia invaded
Military honours, tributes and praise welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, to Poland in a rare wartime foray out of Ukraine for the country’s president.
While Zelenskiy has also travelled to the US, Britain, France and Belgium, the trip to Poland stood out because it was announced in advance and undertaken without the secrecy of past foreign trips.
Continue reading...‘Bombshell’ step in response to rulings by Polish judges that breach principle of the supremacy of EU law
The European Commission is taking Poland to court over rulings from Polish judges considered by experts as a “legal Polexit” that fundamentally undermine the EU’s legal order.
The decision to refer Poland to the European court of justice on Wednesday – described by one expert as a bombshell – comes as Poland’s rightwing nationalist government battles to secure €35.4bn (£31.4bn) in EU Covid recovery funds that have been frozen over concerns about government-influenced courts.
Continue reading...Poland says no evidence to suggest missile was launched by Russia – but Kyiv insists ‘it was not our rocket’
Ukraine’s air defence was probably responsible for a blast that killed two people in south-eastern Poland, the Polish president has said, while Nato said Russia was ultimately to blame as Moscow had started the war and launched the attack that triggered Kyiv’s defences.
While fears eased of a dangerous escalation in the war, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, insisted on Wednesday he had “no doubt” the missile concerned was not Ukrainian.
Continue reading...Move to limit Jewish people’s opportunity to seek restitution sparks furious response from Israel
Poland’s president has decided to sign a bill that would set limits on the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers and retained by postwar communist rulers, drawing fury from Israel, which said the law was antisemitic.
“I made a decision today on the act, which in recent months was the subject of a lively and loud debate at home and abroad,” Andrzej Duda said in a statement published on Saturday. “After an in-depth analysis, I have decided to sign the amendment.”
Continue reading...Jakub Żulczyk faces possible prison term for insulting Andrzej Duda over his comments on Biden election win
A Polish writer faces a possible prison sentence for insulting President Andrzej Duda by calling him a “moron” over comments the latter made about Joe Biden’s US election victory.
Jakub Żulczyk, the screenwriter behind the popular TV series Blinded by the Lights and Belfer, said prosecutors had charged him under an article in the criminal code for insulting the head of state in a Facebook post.
Continue reading...A disturbing future awaits the country after Andrzej Duda’s campaign, which merged politics, populism and entertainment
The political and ideological project being implemented by Poland’s populist governing party, Law and Justice (PiS), has a long way to run. The re-election of the party’s candidate Andrzej Duda to the presidency last month has merely ushered in a new chapter and it will be even more demanding for liberals than what went before.
International attention may be focused on Belarus, but in Poland, ministers have just announced an autumn agenda which involves a simultaneous attack on the judiciary and the independent media. It coincides with intensifying pressure on the LGBT+ community in the form of verbal assaults from PiS figures. Demonstrations in cities across the country against the pre-trial jailing of an LGBT+ activist have led not to dialogue, but to the heavy-handed arrests of dozens more.
Continue reading...President’s critics fear result will boost illiberal tendencies at home and within EU
Poland’s ruling populists have been given free rein in their mission to reshape the country after liberal hopes of taking the presidency were crushed in a narrow defeat following a divisive campaign.
The incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, was elected for another five-year term as a familiar set of demographic divisions played out in the vote. Poles under 50 and those living in larger towns and cities backed the liberal challenger, Rafał Trzaskowski, while older and rural voters stood by Duda.
Continue reading...Duda expected to further erode judicial independence and democratic norms during second presidential term
Andrzej Duda’s second five-year term as president looks certain to intensify Poland’s standoff with Brussels, as the conservative’s allies in the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party pursue changes to the judiciary, media and other areas that the European commission says subvert democratic norms.
Duda squeezed past his Europhile rival, the liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, to win re-election by 51.2% to 48.8%, official results showed on Monday, after a bitter campaign laced with homophobic language and accusations that Trzaskowski would sell out Polish families to “Jewish demands”.
Continue reading...Latest 2am poll gives incumbent Duda a two-percentage-point lead over Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski
Poland’s tightly fought and intensely polarising presidential election has gone down to the wire, as a late exit poll on Sunday night showed the incumbent, Andrzej Duda, leading his liberal challenger, Rafał Trzaskowski, by just two percentage points on 51.0% to 49.0%. The Ipsos poll’s margin of error is 1%.
The figures, released around 2am in Warsaw, were based on exit poll data combined with official results for 90% of the polling stations that took part in the exit poll. Duda had improved slightly on the results of the exit poll alone, which had given him 50.4%.
Continue reading...Andrzej Duda faces Rafał Trzaskowski in runoff that will shape country’s political future
Voting is under way in Poland’s presidential runoff, which pits the populist incumbent, Andrzej Duda, against the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski. The outcome will have a huge bearing on the country’s future political trajectory, and polls suggest the result could go either way.
Duda is allied to the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), and a win for him will give PiS control of most of the levers of power for several more years, allowing it to continue an agenda that has eroded the rule of law and judicial independence, putting Poland on a collision course with the EU.
Continue reading...Two presidential candidates reflect nation’s 30 years of political division since fall of communism
It was an event – or rather two events – that marked the symbolic nadir of 30 years of rancorous political division in Poland since the fall of communism in 1989.
On Monday evening, Poland’s conservative president, Andrzej Duda, and his challenger in Sunday’s presidential election run-off, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, each held their own separate “presidential debate” in different parts of the country, each boycotting the other’s event and each fielding questions alone next to an unmanned podium bearing the name of their rival.
Continue reading...As liberal Rafał Trzaskowski gains on rightwing Andrzej Duda, LGBT rights are among issues at stake in Poland and beyond
When Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, goes up against his liberal challenger in a presidential run-off next Sunday, there will be more at stake than just the medium-term political trajectory of the country. The vote is set to be one of the closest and most important European elections in recent years, and the result will resonate well beyond Poland’s borders.
Duda takes on liberal challenger Rafał Trzaskowski in a race that numerous polls suggest is too close to call. The final outcome will be watched closely by European leaders wary of Poland’s recent political direction, and by progressive politicians worldwide seeking lessons about what does or doesn’t work in taking on populists at the ballot box.
Continue reading...Incumbent Andrzej Duda expected to face run-off against liberal mayor of Warsaw
Poles will vote on Sunday in a postponed presidential election that will determine whether the ruling rightwing populist party continues to have full control over the country’s political system.
Andrzej Duda, an ally of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, is standing for re-election in a crowded field of candidates, with the closest challenger expected to be Rafał Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw.
Continue reading...Andrzej Duda launches ‘family charter’ to appeal to base as election race tightens
Gay rights and homophobia are likely to be major issues in Poland’s delayed presidential election after the frontrunner pledged to “defend children from LGBT ideology”.
Andrzej Duda, the incumbent president, who is allied with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, made the pledge while launching a so-called “family charter”. The move appeared designed to energise the party’s conservative base as polls showed his lead narrowing.
Continue reading...Presidential election was not officially cancelled but polling stations stayed closed
Sunday’s presidential election in Poland had a record low turnout of 0%.
The vote was not officially cancelled but polling stations stayed closed, leading to a strange ghost election after weeks of legal wrangling over whether or not it should go ahead.
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