Poland Daily show of Dec 18 2019- News, Business, Travel, History and Culture!
No changes in the Civic Platform
Civic Platform politicians announced that the January election, which is to choose the new party chairman, will be the beginning of a new chapter, whose epilogue will consist of the party winning the parliamentary election in 2023. However, according to political commentators, the candidates do not give hope for the Platform to overcome its crisis.
Six politicians from the Civic Platform party will ultimately be applying for the position of chairman. Bartosz Arłukowicz announced his candidacy at the end of December, while Senator Bogdan Zdrojewski, Borys Budka, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, and Joanna Mucha all provided statements on their readiness to run for the head of the Civic Platform. The candidacy of Tomasz Siemoniak, who was recommended yesterday by Grzegorz Schetyna, is also supported by Civic Platform MEP Andrzej Halicki.
”I think the ability to connect is very important and Tomasz Siemoniak certainly has it. However, Borys Budka or Bartosz Arłukowicz are also very important, they are good candidates and very dynamic politicians. All of them are important, and it will be the Civic Platform members who will ultimately decide who will take over the most important functions in the party”- says Andrzej Halicki, member of the European Parliament, Civic Platform.
European Parliament member, Joachim Brudziński, assesses the Civic Platform candidates much more skeptically. The Law and Justice member said that the politicians in question remind him of a period when the Civic Platform was headed by former Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz.
”Tomasz Siemoniak is not an exciting politician, much like all the other candidates. Neither Siemoniak, Budka, nor Arłukowicz are exciting politicians from my point of view. None of them are politicians of the same merit as Schetyna is now, or Donald Tusk was in the past”- says Joachim Brudziński, member of the European Parliament, Law and Justice.
”Grzegorz Schetyna realised that he had no chance of winning so he backed down. However, are any of these candidates a glimmer of hope and a new quality in the Civic Platform? They are faces that we’ve known for years and I don’t think they can change anything”- says Błażej Spychalski, spokesperson for the President of Poland.
The first round of the elections of the new head of the Civic Platform is to take place on January 25.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reached an agreement with separatist political forces from Catalonia
Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has managed to reach a deal with separatist political forces from Catalonia, whose support he will need during a crucial vote due to take place on January 7th. During a debate in parliament today, he tried to ensure the public that the deal doesn’t mean he has sold out the political unity of the Spanish state in exchange for the promise of the Catalan separatists to not vote against his party’s attempt at forming government.
Good result of the Polish ski jumper
The Polish ski jumper Dawid Kubacki continues to perform well in the classic Four Hills tournament which consists of 4 World Cup events, 2 in Germany and 2 in Austria. Kubacki ended up second in the third event which took place today in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. Kubacki managed to jump a whopping 120 and a half meters despite unfavorable wind conditions. Today’s result means that Kubacki leads the Four Hills tournament ahead of the Norwegian Marius Lindvik. The fourth and final World Cup event will take place on January 6th.
Trump: We wanted to prevent war
US President Donald Trump said the attack which killed Kasem Sulejmani, head of the Iranian elite force Al-Quds, was to prevent a war. During a Florida press conference, Trump said Sulejmani was planning violent attacks on US diplomats and military personnel. The US president assured that the Iranian general was behind the December attack on the American embassy in Iraq.
Funeral ceremony of the Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Kasem Sulejmani
Hundreds of thousands of people participated today in the funeral ceremony of the Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Kasem Sulejmani, who was killed in a US air strike on Friday. The funeral was held in the capital of Iraq and quickly turned into an anti-American demonstration. Sulejmani was the commander of an elite army unit, the Quds Force, and was responsible for the majority of Iranian military operations in the Middle East.
”What you have seen today during this funeral are social and mass activities, aiming to reject the American presence. Tomorrow, we will have an official stance as political blocs, rejecting the foreign interference. What has been done by the United States is a violation of all international, political and diplomatic norms. We as the Iraqi people should have a stance against such violations”- says Naeem Al-Aboudi, lawmaker.
Kasem Sulejmani – an Iranian general and a commander of an elite unit, the Quds Force, and one of the commanders of pro-Iranian police, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were killed on Thursday night at the international airport in Baghdad. The US authorities have confirmed that they are responsible for the attack.
The US services have been following Sulejmani for several days, informing President Trump about the details and pointing out that the best chance to assassinate him will be near the airport. The US President gave the final permission to conduct the operation a few hours before it began from his golf resort in Florida.
Will the Polish president go to the World Holocaust Forum in Israel?
The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, will most likely not attend the World Holocaust Forum in Israel, which will begin on January 23rd at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem. According to Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper, it is unacceptable for Poland that one of the main speakers at the forum is to be the President of Russia, who has recently made offensive statements about Poland, in which he ascribed shared responsibility to Poland for the outbreak of World War II and accused for anti-Semitism. The Forum Coordinator at the Yad Vashem Institute is Israel Katz, the current Israeli Foreign Minister, infamous for his aggressive anti-Polish statements.
Today, Gazeta Wyborcza announced that President Andrzej Duda will not appear in Israel at the Fifth Holocaust Forum. During the event, which this year is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the German Auschwitz concentration camp, the main speaker is to be Russian president Vladimir Putin.
”No such decision has been made. Talks have been underway with the Israeli side since autumn. We presented our expectations as to the course of these ceremonies, including how we see the role of the Polish president. Some of these expectations have already been met. This weekend, the Polish ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, will hold talks on this topic. Ultimately, we will see how the Israeli side will be able to clarify these matters. If our expectations are not met, the president will not go. The scenario in which Putin is the main guest speaker in Yad Vashem gives him the opportunity to continue his offensive and untruthful statements about the course and causes of World War II and that is unacceptable to us”- says Krzysztof Szczerski,Head of the Chancellery of President Andrzej Duda.
The point of contention is the structure of the event with which Poland does not agree. President Andrzej Duda would not have the opportunity to speak, and the celebrations at Yad Vashem are treated as an alternative to the celebrations at Auschwitz on January 27th. The main speakers at the Holocaust Forum are to be President Putin and President of Israel Reuwen Riwlin. The organizer of the event is the head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz, known for his aggressive anti-Polish statements.
”I agree with the president. The most important thing is that we would celebrate this anniversary here. Secondly, I think it is good that the president does not play along with Putin’s ideas”- says Piotr Zgorzelski, Deputy speaker of the Parliament, Polish People’s party.
The official decision regarding President Andrzej Duda’s visit to Jerusalem is to be made within a few days. The forum at the Yad Vashem Institute will take place on January 23.
Victims of a man with a knife near Paris
French police shot a man dead near Paris after he went on a rampage with a knife in a park. The assailant killed one person and wounded two more.
The attack happened in the town of Villejuif , about 8 km south of central Paris. The deputy head of the French Ministry of Interior said police personnel were able to quickly neutralise the assailant.
”At this time, I would like to salute the quick response of Paris police personnel, especially the personnel of the anti-crime brigade of this area, who intervened very quickly. This allowed the assailant to be neutralised immediately, preventing him from pursuing murderous rampage. This is an extremely courageous act, showing great responsiveness”- says Laurent Nunez, Deputy Minister of Interior of France.
The two injured victims are being treated in nearby hospitals. Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor whose office is handling the case, said witnesses were being interviewed to establish what happened. She declined to disclose details about the attacker.
”There were three victims – one dead, and two other people are still being examined in different hospitals in the Val-de-Marne department. The perpetrator was also gunned down. What we know at the moment is that in his murderous rampage, the perpetrator attempted to attack other victims, who were able to evade him”- says Laure Beccau, prosecutor for the City of Creteil.
In the past four years, the French capital has been rocked by major attacks resulting in mass casualties. In October last year, four people were stabbed to death at the Paris police headquarters by an IT specialist working for the police. Additionally, coordinated bombings and shootings by Islamist militants in November 2015 at the Bataclan theater and other locations around Paris killed 130 people in the deadliest attacks in France since World War II.
Central Transportion Port will start operating at the end of 2027
The first flights from the Polish Central Transportion Port (CPK) are planned for the end of 2027, the Government Commissioner for CPK, Marcin Horala, said to Rzeczpospolita on Friday, adding that the government will do everything to meet this date.
CPK (Centralny Port Komunikacyjny) is a greenfield project located in central Poland, between Warsaw and Łódź, and aims to integrate air, rail and road transport. “This is a very ambitious schedule. (….) Everything should be going very smoothly, with no delays, if the date is to be achieved,” he underlined quated by PAP. Asked about the estimated cost of the project, Horala answered that “it is now being evaluated at PLN 25 billion (EUR 5.9 billion).” “Of course, this sum may be slightly modified as the project progresses,” Horala said.