Cheek in European Parliament
These were all events that took place during yesterday’s sitting of the European Parliament. On Tuesday the parliament held a debate on the alleged discrimination against homosexuals in Poland.
Before yesterday’s debate in the European Parliament was supposed to touch on the subject of sexual minorities in the European Union, but it turned out to be about the situation of the LGBT population in Poland. It was organized by the far left faction. According to the European Commissioner, the European Commission is concerned about these reports from Poland.
The leader of the Spring party, Robert Biedroń, joined the discussion as well. He said that he can’t go wherever he wants in Poland, because of his sexual orientation.
”There are some shops and restaurants in Poland that I can’t go to. I’ve been living 43 years in a country where people like me are called ‘homo terrorists’. You can promote apples in a supermarket, but you can’t promote homosexualism”- says Robert Biedroń, MEP,Leader of The Spring party.
The MEP of the Law and Justice party, Patryk Jaki had this to say about these accusations.
”Poland is one of the most tolerant and open countries. Poland defends the LGBT people not only during marches but also in other aspects of life. This is not about the people, but about the ideology. Poland has the right to defend its tradition and Catholic values and parents have to right to not want their children to be taught values that they’re not being raised by”- says PatrykJaki,MEP, Law and Justice party.
According to the publicists, yesterday’s debate in the European Parliament is another stage of the cultural war between Poland and the EU’s left-wing.
”The debate focused on Poland, because there are many whistleblowers in our country. It was a pure game of emotions”- says dr.Krzysztof Karnowski, publicist.
MEPs decided that during December’s plenary session of the European Parliament, they will accept the resolution about the hate speech against LGBT people.
Now Von der Leyen
The new European Commission, presided over by Ursula von der Leyen, was approved by the European Parliament yesterday. The new head of the Commission said that Europe, after a period of solving current crises, should now look ahead. In Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen announced investments in innovation, completing the banking union, creating a legal framework for artificial intelligence, and a plan to battle cancer, among the goals for her presidency.
Defense of Banaś
Yesterday, during a session of the state control committee of the lower house of parliament, the president of the Supreme Audit Office, Marian Banaś, introduced the candidates to be vice presidents, Tadeusz Dziuba and Marek Opioła. Both candidates received a positive recommendation from the deputies on the committee. The Supreme Audit Office president also made a statement concerning certain allegations made against him.
” During yesterday’s sessions of the state control committee of the lower house of parliament the highest tensions erupted from the fact that the Supreme Audit Office president, Marian Banaś, made a surprising official appearance. The opposition had lots of questions about the serious allegations about inconsistency in his asset affidavits. The main new allegation today is a question from MP Nitras whether there is supposedly a deal reached between president Banaś and the Law and Justice Party to introduce two VPs from Law and Justice in exchange for immunity for himself in respect of the earlier allegations”- says Aleksandra Zarzycka, TV Republika.
”A campaign of unfounded allegations has been going on for two months against my good name. The lies about my alleged connections with criminals and allegations about supposed tax avoidance are widely broadcast in the media on the opposition side. It has been suggested that I took ownership of the property in Kraków in an illegal way and that I used my official position to my private benefit. All those allegations are not true. Each of those allegations is a lie, lie, and once more a lie. The property in question was completely remodelled in 2004 and then run as a dormitory by my son. Next, when my son changed his career plans, I found a new property administrator. He did not raise any concerns as to his honesty, he had no criminal record and he was a potential buyer of the property, which was my desired solution. In December 2015, 30 days from assuming the office of the deputy finance minister, I entered into a notary agreement for the sale of that property to the administrator at the time. Based on that agreement, the buyer was to pay a large deposit. In case of dropping the deal, the deposit was supposed to be forfeited, but the amount was to compensate for the loss of the current rent. The suggestion that it was a way to pay less tax is a libel and a simple lie”- says Marian Banaś, Supreme Audit Office President.
”The session of the committee ended in a shouting match in the parliament chamber where one opposition MP still tried to ask loud questions to the Supreme Audit Office president escorted by the parliamentary guard officers.
The state control committee of the lower house of parliament voted to give positive recommendations for the selected candidates as Vice Presidents of the Supreme Audit Office”- says Aleksandra Zarzycka, TV Republika.
Reparations
The issue of World War II reparations for Poland is an issue hotly debated in Poland. So far Germany officials claims that the problem was solved long ago and that all Berlin may do now is to condemn the German war crimes and apologize. But any financial commitment is out of question. Two German writers, Karl Heinz Roth and Hartmuth Ruebner, challenge this position and demand that the German government address the problem in a serious way.
In a book titled “Displaced – Suspended – Rejected. The German reparations debt on the example of Poland and Greece” the authors discuss the issue of the responsibility of present day Germany for countless war crimes, from the murder of the civilian population to the demolition of property.
The German Federal Republic claims that the issue has been resolved by the 1953 treaty between two communist puppet states: East Germany and the People’s Republic of Poland. According to the writers the pact does not take into account West Germany and the issue was not addressed by the 1990 reunification treaty because that was not a peace conference.
According to Roth and Ruebner, so far Germany has come away very cheaply from the issue of war reparations for Poland and Greece. They think that both countries have the right to raise claims and demand multi-billion reparations from Germany.
The Polish Parliament set up a Commission to assess the damages and produce a report on claims. So far there are no firm numbers, but the range is from 800 billion to 2 trillion Euro.
Roth and Ruebner’s book is the first serious attempt on the German side to address the Polish and Greek reparation claims.
Germany
Yesterday some 10,000 farmers from across Germany with around 5,000 tractors protested against the government’s agriculture policies, bringing traffic to a standstill in central Berlin.
The protesters gathered at the city’s landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, demanding more planning security and saying they would no longer accept the current situation.
“Farming is the basis for everyone, whether you live in a big city, a small city, or in a village. The situation has become very drastic as far as rules go, also from politicians. We are no longer willing to accept this situation”- says protesting farmer, Matthias Schuebel.
On every bridge for the first 160 km there were people awaiting the tractors, waving and hanging banners in the support of the farmers.
“On every bridge across the highway between Schweinfurt from where we left up to Erfurt and Arnstadt, there were between 10 and 100 people on Sunday, barbecuing and hanging banners from the bridge. They waved and it was very emotional. We realised that we are supported by the public”- says prostesting farmer from Bavaria, Klaus( no last name given).
Many young farmers stated that they doubt whether it’s a good decision to follow in their parents footsteps and become farmers.
“The problem right now is that a lot of farmers see their future in danger. There are young farmers like myself who are thinking about whether or not to take over their parents’ farms. It’s very, very important to know what the future in farming looks like so we have certainty. If we invest now we need to know whether, for example, a new barn is still legal in its current form in five years”- says protesting farmer from north eastern Germany’s Uckermark region, Johanna Mandelkow.
The protests in Germany have been inspired by a farmers protests which started earlier this year in the Netherlands in reaction to the government’s plans to introduce legislation which would strike against farmers but, according to the government, is meant to mitigate the problems of environmental and climate change.