Category Archives: Poland

EU leaders clash with Hungary over proposed laws on migration

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Viktor Orbán used provocative language at summit, saying EU had gone ahead without his or Poland’s support

EU leaders have clashed again with Hungary after the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, insisted at a summit in Granada that it would not support proposed laws to deal with migration.

Poland also joined the protest, accusing Brussels of imposing a “diktat” on other member states regarding the proposed laws that would apply in the event of a sudden refugee crisis such as that of 2015, when more than 1 million people arrived in the EU from Syria and beyond.

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Polish elections: who are the key players and what is at stake?

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Tusk-led Civic Platform aims to unseat nationalist Law and Justice party in bitterly contested ballot

Poland’s elections on 15 October could give the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party an unprecedented third term in office, or hand its longstanding opposition the chance to reverse what critics describe as eight years of democratic backsliding.

Another possibility is that they end in stalemate, with neither party able to form a coalition. Whatever happens, Poland’s politics will remain deeply polarised after a ballot that – amid war in Ukraine and a bitter dispute with the EU – is of more than usual interest abroad.

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UK campaign group chief says Poland deported him at France’s request

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Head of Cage says criticism of Emmanuel Macron’s government for Islamophobia is reason for forced return to Britain

The UK director of the campaign group Cage has claimed he has been deported from Poland at the behest of French authorities because he criticised Emmanuel Macron’s government for Islamophobia.

Muhammad Rabbani, who heads a group that campaigns on behalf of those affected by the “war on terror”, was due to give a speech this week at an international security conference in Warsaw that would have been critical of France’s handling of anti-government protests.

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Nobel laureate urges Polish opposition to commit to progressive causes

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Exclusive: Olga Tokarczuk’s comments come in rare political interview two weeks before potentially pivotal election

The Polish opposition seeking to topple the country’s rightwing populist government needs to start spelling out its commitment to progressive causes, the Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk has urged in a rare political interview.

“We as citizens will need to be assured that a new government would have faith in democracy, Europeanism and freedom guaranteed by law,” Tokarczuk told the Guardian two weeks before Poland goes to the polls in a potentially pivotal election on 15 October.

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Prize-winning Polish film on refugees opens to government backlash

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Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border tells story of brutal treatment of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe

A prize-winning film sharply critical of the Polish government’s attitude to refugees has opened at cinemas across the country, after being attacked in the run-up to its release by members of the Polish government.

Green Border, a feature film by the celebrated director Agnieszka Holland, won the special jury prize in Venice last month. It tells the story of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe via the Belarus-Poland border in 2021, and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of Polish border guards.

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Poland will no longer send weapons to Ukraine, says PM, as grain dispute escalates

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Comments by Polish PM follow Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s accusation that some in Europe are in effect aiding Russia

Poland, one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies, has announced an end to its arms transfers to the country, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Warsaw of playing into Russia’s hands by banning Ukrainian grain imports.

Poland is one of Kyiv’s main weapons suppliers and has been one of the loudest cheerleaders for the Ukrainian cause since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, but relations have soured over recent days amid the growing row over grain.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy ‘looking forward to discussing air defense’ with Biden before US announces ‘significant’ military aid – as it happened

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Energy and civilian infrastructure was hit in an early morning Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s western Rivne region, Reuters reports local governor Vitaliy Koval said on Thursday.

The Russian defence ministry claims to have downed 19 drones over the Black Sea and Crimea regions, and three further drones launched at the Belgorod, Kursk and Oryol regions by Ukraine.

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Outrage as Polish TV talent show contestants use blackface for Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé performances

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Singer Kuba Szmajkowski and actor Pola Gonciarz heavily darkened their skin on Your Face Sounds Familiar, with Szmajkowski also wearing cornrows and using the N-word

A leading Polish TV talent show has been widely criticised for featuring celebrity contestants in blackface, impersonating Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé.

Singer Kuba Szmajkowski, a star in Poland who has 163,000 Instagram followers, won the second episode of the 19th series of Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo – the Polish iteration of long-running franchise Your Face Sounds Familiar – on Saturday after performing Lamar’s track Humble in blackface, fake cornrows and a fake beard. He also used the N-word, which went uncensored on the broadcast.

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Vatican beatifies Polish family executed by Nazis for sheltering Jews

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Ulma family including unborn child all beatified for their actions to help Jews during second world war

The Vatican has beatified a Polish family of nine – a married couple and their small children – who were executed by the Nazis during the second world war for sheltering Jews.

During a ceremonious mass in the village of Markowa, in south-east Poland, the papal envoy Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read out the Latin formula of the beatification of the Ulma family signed last month by Pope Francis.

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Polish prime minister to hold referendum on EU’s immigration plan

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Mateusz Morawiecki to ask voters if they want to accept ‘thousands of illegal immigrants’ under the bloc’s proposed new rules

Poland’s rightwing prime minister has said he will go ahead with a referendum on EU migration reforms, in which voters will be asked if they are willing to accept “thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa”.

Mateusz Morawiecki announced in a video published online on Sunday that the referendum would coincide with a parliamentary election on 15 October. Migration and security will be central topics of the election, as Morawiecki’s ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), seeks to retain power.

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Tensions rise as Belarus begins military drills near Poland and Lithuania

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Leaders of the two Nato countries say they expect provocations from their neighbouring Russian ally and Wagner fighters

Belarus has begun military exercises near its border with Poland and Lithuania, as tensions heighten with the two Nato members over Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries who moved to Belarus after their short-lived mutiny in Russia.

Both Poland and Lithuania have increased border security since thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russia-allied Belarus under a deal that ended their armed rebellion in late June and allowed them and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to avoid criminal charges.

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Warsaw sends troops to border, accusing Belarus of violating its airspace

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Polish military says army helicopters crossed eastern flank, adding to tensions caused by proximity of Wagner fighters

Poland has rushed troops to its eastern border after accusing Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, of violating its airspace with military helicopters.

The Belarusian military denied any such violation and accused Poland, a Nato member and one of Ukraine’s most fervent backers in its conflict with Russia, of inventing the accusation to justify a buildup of its troops.

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Lithuania and Poland ‘may close Belarus borders’ due to Wagner fighters

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Lithuania says move may be needed as Poland warns mercenaries are in Belarus to bring crisis to neighbours

Poland and Lithuania are considering closing their respective borders with Belarus amid concerns over the presence there of the Wagner mercenary group, a Lithuanian deputy interior minister said on Friday.

“The considerations are real. The possibility of closing the border exists,” Arnoldas Abramavičius told reporters.

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Putin warns Poland against ‘unleashing aggression’ against Belarus

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Russian president reacts angrily after Polish defence minister sends troops to guard eastern border

Vladimir Putin has said Russia will use “all means at its disposal” to defend Belarus after Poland and other EU countries voiced concerns about the deployment of Russian paramilitaries near their borders.

Putin delivered a series of aggressive remarks during a meeting of his security council, where he claimed without evidence that Poland was seeking to invade Belarus, a Russian ally, and that their elites were “dreaming of Belarusian lands”.

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‘Chinese agents could be following me’, says Australian artist at centre of censorship row

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Australian consular officials will attend the opening of Badiucao’s show in Poland after Chinese ambassador demanded it be closed down

Australian consular officials in Poland will attend the opening of an exhibition in the country’s capital by Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao on Friday, to send a message to Chinese authorities who have allegedly tried to stop the show going ahead.

On Wednesday, Australia’s ambassador to Poland, Lloyd Brodrick, met Shanghai-born Australian artist Badiucao, as well as executives from the museum where the show is being held, Warsaw’s Ujazdowski Castle, Center for Contemporary Art (CCA Ujazdowski Castle).

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Poland criticises EU’s ‘unacceptable’ proposed charge for refusing migrants

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Warsaw says it would not pay €22,000 ‘fine’ for each person it declines to host as ministers hold crunch talks in Luxembourg

Poland has entered crunch talks aimed at making radical changes to the EU’s migration and asylum laws with the claim that the proposals could result in a “step back” to 2015, when more than a million people flowed into the bloc.

The Polish deputy state secretary of the interior, Bartosz Grodecki, opened the summit of home affairs ministers in Luxembourg by declaring that Warsaw would refuse to pay proposed “fines” for not taking people.

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Nato members may send troops to Ukraine, warns former alliance chief

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Security guarantees and membership path needed at Nato summit to avoid escalation, says Anders Rasmussen

A group of Nato countries may be willing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine if member states including the US do not provide tangible security guarantees to Kyiv at the alliances’s summit in Vilnius, the former Nato secretary general Anders Rasmussen has said.

Rasmussen, who has been acting as official adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Ukraine’s place in a future European security architecture, has been touring Europe and Washington to gauge the shifting mood before the critical summit starts on 11 July.

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Kremlin calls Poland’s decision to rename Kaliningrad a ‘hostile act’

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Russian city will now be known as Królewiec in official documents, its name in the 15th and 16th centuries

The Kremlin has described Poland’s decision to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents as a “hostile act”, as ties continue to fray over the Ukraine war.

Kaliningrad, which sits in an exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast, was known by the German name of Königsberg until after the second world war, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union and renamed to honour politician Mikhail Kalinin.

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EU parliament report calls for tighter regulation of spyware

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Non-binding vote bans surveillance software after concluding Hungary and Poland used it to track journalists and opponents

The EU needs tighter regulation of the spyware industry, a European parliament special committee has said, after concluding that Hungary and Poland had used surveillance software to illegally monitor journalists, politicians and activists.

A special European parliament committee voted on Monday for a temporary ban on the sale, acquisition and use of spyware while the bloc draws up common EU standards based on international law. The moratorium would be lifted only on strict conditions, including independent investigations into the abuse of spyware in the EU.

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German president asks for forgiveness on Warsaw Ghetto Uprising anniversary

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Frank-Walter Steinmeier becomes his country’s first head of state to speak at Warsaw commemorations

Germany’s president has asked for forgiveness for the crimes his country committed in the second world war, on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the first German president to speak at the commemorations in Poland’s capital, joined his Polish and Israeli counterparts to mark 80 years since Jewish insurgents’ doomed uprising against Nazi occupiers.

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