The NBA legend perished in a crash of his private helicopter along with four other people onboard, in California. The daughter of the 41 years old basketball icon was among them too. She was thirteen. People all over the world send their thoughts to the family. Rest in peace, Kobe.
Wieliczka attracts more and more tourists
Tourists are more and more eager to visit the salt mine in Wieliczka. Last year nearly 1.86 million tourists visited the salt mine lying south of Cracow – it is up by 7 percent compared to the previous year.
“This was another record year in the history of the mine. We are glad that the admiration for Wieliczka reaches the furthest corners of the globe, promoting Poland in the world” the mine’s president, Zbigniew Zarębski, has told PAP. The biggest number of foreign tourists came from Great Britain (154,500), Italy (87,000) and Spain (84,000). Numerous guests also came from Germany – 79,000 and from France – 75,000. The Wieliczka Salt Mine was founded in the 13th century and has been a tourist destination since the 18th century. These days it is the largest underground museum in Europe which exhibits and presents all aspects of salt mining. The mine was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978.
Polish airline LOT purchases German airline Condor
The Polish Aviation Group (PGL), which Polish national airline PLL LOT is part of, takes over Germany’s biggest vacation airline, Condor Air. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed the deal on Friday.
At a press conference on Friday in Frankfurt am Main, representatives of Condor and LOT announced that the Polish offer was considered the most advantageous for the company, its employees, partners, suppliers and customers. LOT won the competition for the profitable airline beating several other investors, including the American Apollo fund and the British Greybull. The takeover was confirmed yesterday by Prime Minister Morawiecki. “It is evidence of the strength of the Polish economy,” the Prime Minister said at a press conference. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets, Jacek Sasin emphasized that over the last three years PLL LOT has generated a PLN 700 million (EUR 164.8 million) profit, while over eight years earlier, it had recorded losses of PLN 2 billion (EUR 471 million). “PLL is developing today,” said the Minister.
IS THE POLISH SUPREME COURT ABOVE THE LAW?
As announced yesterday by its first president, Małgorzata Gersdorf, the Polish Supreme Court met today in a meeting of its three chambers: the Civil, Criminal and Labour. The meeting considered whether the new judges appointed at the request of the new National Council of the Judiciary by President Andrzej Duda are legitimately appointed judges. Duda’s position is that the action of the Supreme Court violates the Polish constitutional order.
The meeting of three chambers of the Supreme Court convened as scheduled, despite the fact that by law it should have been suspended as soon as the matter was taken under consideration by the Constitutional Tribunal. It is within the jurisdiction of that body to decide whether the new judges appointed at the request of the new National Council of the Judiciary by President Andrzej Duda are legitimate judges.
“The president of the Supreme Court Disciplinary Chamber, Tomasz Przesławski, communicated to the first president of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Gersdorf a complaint that the procedure of calling of a Supreme Court session with only three chambers is wrong, because it ignores the Disciplinary Chamber and it violates the Supreme Court Act. In this situation, that motion to call a meeting should be amended or cancelled altogether” said Piotr Falkowski, the Spokesman for the Disciplinary Chamber.
According to President Andrzej Duda the Supreme Court should not deal with this issue because it is the president who has the indisputable prerogative of nominating judges of the National Council of the Judiciary. The following was stated by the deputy chief of the president’s chancellery:
“In the light of the ruling by the European Union Court of Justice, I frankly say that I do not see any legal basis justifying the formulation of such judicial questions. They are as imaginary as the decision of the Supreme Court’s first president to call a meeting of three chambers of that court. This is being challenged by many lawyers, on the basis of the regulations of the Supreme Court itself. They are violating their own rules.”
It is not yet known, when exactly the Constitutional Tribunal will issue a ruling on the competence dispute between the Supreme Court, the lower chamber of parliament called Sejm and the President. According to prof. Waldemar Gontarski, Poland’s representative at the Court of Justice of the European Union, by ignoring the position of the Constitutional Tribunal the Supreme Court would put itself above the law.
President and Prime Minister on falsifying history
President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and world renowned historians are publishing articles in international media bringing attention to the falsification of the history of World War II and presenting reliable results of research concerning this tragic period in the history of Poland and Europe.
The articles are published as part of the educational campaign “The truth that must not die”. It was initiated on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in 2019. According to the president of the New Media Institute, Eric Mistewicz, the texts have already reached over 450 million readers. On Tuesday, Politico published a comprehensive article by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki which calls for a collective European position towards Russian attempts to distort the history of the 20th century. On Wednesday, The Washington Post published two texts by British historian Roger Moorhouse and American writer Allen Paul on the falsification of the World War II history. Both writers drew attention to the mutual interests of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany which materialized in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as well as to the Soviet origin of arguments put forward today against Poland. In the coming days, The Washington Post, Die Welt and Le Figaro newspapers will publish an article by President Andrzej Duda on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Poland's new economic initiative
Jacek Sasin, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos the plan of establishing a Business Council grouping the presidents of the biggest companies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Sasin emphasized in Davos that Poland is going to take responsibility for the economic development of the entire region. “We will persuade businesspeople from the entire world and the heads of important institutions responsible for development that it is worth investing in Poland, worth investing in our part of Europe, that it simply pays” the minister said (quoted by the Polish Press Agency). According to the Agency, Sasin drew attention to the fact that the CEE region is developing extremely dynamically. He pointed out that of the 10 fastest developing European countries in recent years, seven are countries of the CEE region with Poland as the leading growing state.
Poles are optimistic about the future
Majority of Poles are optimistic and believe that things are going in the right direction in Poland, according to a public opinion poll by Kantar Public.
According to poll published by PAP, 57 percent of Poles are optimistic about the future, and they say that things in Poland are going well. 41 percent believe the situation in the country is heading in the wrong direction. 22 percent of population have no opinion on the matter. Respondents were asked about the condition of the Polish economy, 57 percent said the economy was growing, while 32 percent said the economy was in crisis. 27 percent believe the economy is experiencing a mild crisis while 6 percent described the crisis as severe. The survey was conducted on January 10 -15 with a representative sample of 1,015 respondents aged 15 and over.
Prime Minister's answer to Russia's historical lies
“The Soviet Union did not liberate the Polish capital at all and the Red Army looked idly at Warsaw’s
agony” – Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki emphasized on portal Politico.
An important text of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was published on portal Politico, entitled “Moscow’s Holocaust revisionism”. The Prime Minister referred to historical lies delivered, among others, by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the beginning of World War II and the Holocaust. “The Stalinist version of history is not only incorrect in terms of facts, but also offends the memory of millions of victims of Communism. In fact, it was the alliance between Nazi Germany and the USSR in 1939 which cleared the way for the outbreak of World War II” wrote the Polish PM. According to the Prime Minister, the Nazi Germany would not be able to rebuild German military potential without the supply of natural resources and military cooperation with Soviet Union.
ACCUSATIONS TOWARDS SPEAKER GRODZKI PILE UP
The accusations towards the Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki pile up as more and more people come out with testimonies of him accepting bribes in exchange for personally treating patients in one of Szczecin’s hospitals where Grodzki was a director. What’s more, some patients came out with stories of nurses accepting bribes as well and even one patient being placed in the section where lungs were treated after having a surgery on… foreskin. It seems only a matter of time, before Speaker Grodzki will have to defend himself in court.
THE POLISH PRESIDENT CALLS FOR A SPECIAL TASK FORCE TO COUNTER PUTIN'S LIES
One of the main speakers at the World Holocaust Forum to be held at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem this Thursday will be the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin recently sought to blame Polish anti-Semitism for the Holocaust. Poland’s Presidential Chancellery has established a crisis task force in order to counter Putin’s expected continued anti-Polish campaign. Experts and historians from the task force will be able to respond immediately to any of Putin’s historical misrepresentations during the Forum.
In an interview for the „Do Rzeczy” weekly, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland will face several difficult years of fighting anti-Polonism. The prime minister’s words are related to Russia’s propaganda war against Poland, which has intensified in the last month. The culmination of this wave of anti-Polonism which started few weeks ago with Putin’s statements about the Second World War may be the speech he will give on January 23 at the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel during the World Holocaust Forum to commemorate the liberation of the German concentration camp at Aushwitz. Putin is to be one of the main speakers at this event. According to one of the Israeli television channels, Putin’s historical narrative is supported by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, Polish radio station RMF FM reports that President Andrzej Duda has appointed a task force of experts and historians in his office who will counter the lies expected of Putin during the ceremony at Yad Vashem. In turn, on the initiative of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, a series of interviews for the American and Israeli press as well as texts on the history of Poland will be released soon.