Alliance of the Visegrad Group
Mayors of the 4 capital cities in the Visegrad Group, Warsaw, Budapest, Prague and Bratislava gathered yesterday at the Central European University in Budapest to strike an alliance, obliging the city halls in the 4 capitals to work together with the aim of convincing the EU to bypass national governments and pay out EU funds directly to local governments which are in opposition to their governments.
The meeting took place symbolically in the George Soros-founded Central European University in Budapest which is in the process of relocating to Vienna, as conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has introduced laws which made it impossible for the American liberal billionaire and political activist’s university to remain in the country.
The new liberal mayor of Budapest argued that local governments can make better use of EU funds than national governments.
“Independent of the serious problems regarding the right usage of funds in the region, these issues make the old adage of ‘think global act local’ especially acute. Therefore we think that it is in the interest of the EU that in the whole of Europe these direct financial mechanisms should be launched and they can expect results in return. I am convinced that these cities can do miracles in the areas of climate change and innovation”- says Gergely Karacsony, Mayor of Budapest.
The mayor of Warsaw stated that EU funds should be slushed straight to local governments as the conservative national governments often withhold money from the metropolitan regions.
“We were allocating money to the poorer regions which needed to catch up, and of course we have to do it, we have to concentrate on those, but we also were allocating money to the cities as they were engines of growth, and we have 12 engines of growth in Poland as the metropolitan regions are very, very important. Similarly in the countries like the Czech Republic of Hungary or Slovakia, where sometimes governments have ideas of actually taking money away from the cities for political reasons”- says Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw.
Some EU member states say the disbursement of EU funds for infrastructure and other projects should hinge on respect for democratic standards and the rule of law, accusing the conservative governments in the Visegrad Group of breaking the rules. The liberal mayors want to take advantage of the situation and hope to gain funds at the expense of national governments.
Protecting children and young people against pornography
The government is going to take action to reduce access to pornographic content for children and teenagers. During yesterday’s meeting with the Family Council, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated that the government will protect children and teenagers from access to porn in the same way as it does from alcohol and drugs . The Polish PM signalled last week that changes are coming, after reading a report by an NGO about the harm porn causes to young minds.
Anniversary of pacification of the ''Wujek'' mine
Yesterday was the 38th anniversary of the deadly attack by the communist secret service on striking coal miners in the “Wujek” mine. 9 men were killed and 23 were injured. The massacre of the miners in Katowice was the deadliest event during the 1981 Martial Law in Poland which saw more than 100 dissidents killed when General Jaruzelski’s military junta tried to crush the Solidarity movement.
The case of Śpiewak
On Friday, Jan Śpiewak was sentenced by the Warsaw District Court to pay 5 thousand and 10 thousand zloty to Bogumiła Górnikowska-Ćwiąkalska – the daughter of the former Minister of Justice. The case concerned an act of defamation allegedly committed by Śpiewak who had made public her participation in the reprivatization of the tenement house on Joteyki street. The verdict paradoxically means that the activist who revealed the reprivatization scandal in Warsaw is so far the only one to have been sentenced in connection to it.
Jan Śpiewak has announced that he’s going to file a request for clemency to the Chancellery of the President of Poland. He met with President Andrzej Duda before yesterday.
”If a motion will be filled then the case will be investigated. This is a shocking case, because it was a man who fought for justice”- says Andrzej Duda, President of Poland.
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki took the floor in this matter on Saturday.
”It is worth mentioning one point in this matter: the lawyer was supposed to be a superintendent of a person at the age of 118… No comments.
Themis – a symbol of impartiality wears a blindfold. Friends and enemies have to be judged the same. A person who fights for independence as hard as Mr. Śpiewak should get respect, a medal and a good word. Finding him guilty is against social sense of justice and a belief that he was doing what he was doing for the common good”- says Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland.
Yesterday , Civic Platform politicians didn’t want to comment on the judge’s ruling. On the other hand, Law and Justice politicians see a solution for this case by filing a request for clemency.
”In my opinion a request for clemency should be filled”- says Jan Maria Jackowski, Senator of the Law and Justice party.
The District Court upheld the judgment of the regional court, which was ruled in mid-January 2019. The private indictment of defamation concerned, among others, an entry published by Śpiewak in October 2017 on Twitter, in which he wrote that the daughter of Minister Ćwiąkalski took over a tenement house in the Ochota district of Warsaw by the 118-year-old curator in 2010.
”The judges wanted to prove that the daughter of Ćwiąkalski can’t be intouchable – the paradox is that Mr. Śpiewak was trying to defend the Warsaw inhabitants who could’ve lost their houses because of a reprivatization. He became a victim”- says Marek Król,publicist.
Jan Śpiewak has announced that he’s going to file a request for clemency to the President of Poland later this week. At the same time, he will also submit a request to the Ombudsman and the Minister of Justice to submit a cassation complaint to the Supreme Court.
Polish judiciary
Yesterday’s hot topic in Poland is the overhaul of the judiciary system which has seen little reform since the communist days 30 years ago. Many pose the question whether Poland is a democracy, or rather a judiciocracy? Politicians of the ruling camp have no doubt that recent actions of part of the judicial community based on a ruling be the European Court of Justice, might lead to legal anarchy. The opposition, in turn, argues that the new proposed amendment to the legislation regulating the structure of the court system is of repressive nature that undermines the legal order.
”Who, according to the constitution and according to the recent verdict of the European Court of Justice, has the right to nominate new judges? We have to ask this fundamental question. In my opinion, such a right does not belong to a group of Supreme Court judges, it is a right reserved for the Polish president. What is happening right now, in my opinion, is an attempt to change Poland’s political system, from democracy to. judiciocracy”- says Patryk Jaki, European Parliament MP.
”The basic rule in democratic countries is that judges do not comment on political matters. This is the norm, which is observed in democracies, and first of all in the Western Europe. Judges do not take part in political actions just because of this, so later, when they deal with matters dealing with political issues, there is no doubt they are impartial. It’s necessary for judges to be unbiased in the eyes of ordinary citizens, this is very important”- says Andrzej Duda, President of Poland.
”The proposed amendment is not on the agenda of the coming parliament session. Despite that, the new speaker of the senate, who is from the opposition party, announced that he will make sure that he receives the opinion of international experts, have public hearings on the matter and even encourage Poles to street protests. In defense against the judicial reform including street protests, stood former president Lech Walesa and former prime minister Donald Tusk. Donald Tusk also stated that the so-called policy of ‘taking the streets and international intervention” called for some time ago by the leading opposition politician Grzegorz Schetyna was correct and effective, yielded necessary results, and might play a positive role in Poland’s history”- says Aleksandra Zarzycka, TV Republika.
Polish 5G will be consulted in the Union
The establishment of the Polish 5G requires consultation with the European Union to explain that the innovative approach to the use of radio frequencies does not violate competition – said Exatel’s head Nikodem Bończa Tomaszewski.
Exatel together with the Polish Development Fund and four operators Orange Polska, T-Mobile Polska, Polkomtel and Play are working on a business model of a joint infrastructure for the 700 MHz band, i.e. wholesale model, in which the state holds a majority shareholding and makes the entire 700 MHz frequency available, and operators – passive infrastructure and financial contributions. – We set a very ambitious goal that our proposals will be ready this year. However, in real terms, it seems to me that we will present the conclusions at the earliest in the first quarter of 2020. The challenge is that our model is innovative and we need to refine it in every detail and subject it to careful verification – said Bończa Tomaszewski.
Błaszczak among Polish soldiers in Lebanon
On Saturday, the Minister of Defense of Poland Mariusz Błaszczak met on the border with Israel with soldiers of the Polish Military Contingent serving under the UN Temporary Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The Minister of Defense expressed gratitude to Polish soldiers for their dedicated service in ensuring a truce, protecting civilians, supporting the Lebanese authorities and helping the Lebanese army. “You do these tasks very well,” said Blaszczak. Blaszczak began his visit to Lebanon on Friday. He noted that the purpose of the visit is to confirm that the Polish authorities want to provide the best possible conditions for Polish soldiers serving outside the country. After a ten-year break, Poland returned to UN peacekeeping operations in Lebanon.
President Duda met the mother of the youngest martial law victim
President Andrzej Duda met with Krystyna Barchańska, mother of the nearly 17-year-old Emil Barchański who was murdered in 1982, who was the youngest victim of martial law.
Emil Barchański, third grade student of the Lyceum of Reja in Warsaw, with colleagues from the secret organization Confederation of Polish Youth “Piłsudczyki”, on February 10, 1982, that is, two months from the imposition of martial law, when the most draconian laws restricting freedom were in force in Poland, in the very center of Warsaw, he threw the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky with white and red paint, as well as Molotov cocktails. On June 3, 1982, he went on the Vistula’s bank with a friend to study. At one point he disappeared and no one else saw him alive. After a few days, his body was fished out of the river. The perpetrators were never found.