Poland

[Gruchaa]

During and after WW11, the United States did absolutely nothing to help Poland! Yet, the USSR/Russia provided "a safety-net" for the Polish Government, if the need presented itself. A lot of planning goes into a decision of this magnitude. The Soviets, at the time, wanted to help preserved the Polish Government.

"and so find shelter" - and now Poland is slamming the door shut on Russia ... while "opening the front door wide open" to be slowly destroyed from within by NATO? Are we looking at "History" repeating itself? When NATO gets done manipulating Poland - Poland's status will "be in name - only"! There will be no sovereignty left.

Yeap, USA did nothing to help Poland. They only used (are still using) Polish for their interests with words in the mouth: "we are helping you" ;)

However what about the European Recovery Program (Marshall's Plan)? It was some kind "help" from USA to Europe. Based on my knowledge Stalin refused to receive this help for Satellites countries (including Poland).

The Soviets, at the time, wanted to help preserved the Polish Government. - I think the the aim was the same/similar what USA is doing: To have satellite/buffering country between Russia and Western world (that time) and USA and Russia (Current time).

History is repeating. I wrote about it. Poland is not learning on its mistakes, so needs to repeat the lessons unfortunately :(

In my opinion - Poland foreign politics should be to find a yin yang between Western world and Russia. To not make enemy's on both sides and to not sell our values to one of the side. We should not allow USA to put their troops here. Anti-rocket ideas are insane (they won't defend Poland, they are not designed for that). Buying old useless F-16's is throwing money into the mud (still we haven't received promised off-set) Buying F-35's, when USA have full control on these aircraft's is a nonsense..etc

Fighting and shaking tail feathers against Russia is crazy, etc.

 

[angelburst29]

Conservative Polish magazine issues 'LGBT-free zone' stickers

A sticker with words "LGBT-free zone" distributed in weekly conservative magazine "Gazeta Polska" is pictured in Warsaw, Poland July 24, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Diplomats and opposition politicians in Poland have criticized the Gazeta Polska’s campaign and a major bookseller, Empik, as well as the Polish branch of British oil company BP, have said they would not carry the edition.

Gazeta Polska’s editor-in-chief, Tomasz Sakiewicz, said the campaign wasn’t directed against any individual but against those who try to censor views that are critical of “LGBT ideology”.

“We wanted to prove that censorship in this case exists and we have proved it,” Sakiewicz told Reuters, referring to criticism of the stickers. “What is happening is the best evidence that LGBT is a totalitarian ideology.”

The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government, which has faced accusations of fomenting anti-gay sentiment in recent months, said Gazeta Polska should be free to publish under Poland’s freedom of expression laws.

“As the ruling party, we won’t impose on the free media and the free press what it should write and what stickers it should distribute,” deputy prime minister Jacek Sasin told private TV station TVN on Monday.

The campaign includes stickers with a black “x” through a rainbow flag and was announced last week by Gazeta Polska.

The move comes as PiS has made LGBT rights a central campaign issue, pegging the party against more liberal forces in the country.

The magazine is largely loyal to the government line and receives significantly more advertising placements from state-run companies than other privately run media.

Along with the stickers, gay pride marches have become a pressure point in Poland, with many ruling party politicians saying that they unnecessarily encourage public display of sexuality.

“These kinds of marches, initiated by groups that are trying to force through their non-standard sexual behaviors, awaken resistance ... it’s worth considering if such events should be organized in the future,” Education Minister Dariusz Piontkowski told private broadcaster TVN on Sunday.

Police have detained more than 30 people in Bialystok, eastern Poland, after attacks on gay pride march participants on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and human rights officials condemned the violence.

Poland ranks second to last out of 28 European Union states when it comes to equality and non-discrimination, according to Rainbow Europe, an organization linked to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Gay marriage is illegal in Poland and homosexual partnerships are not legally recognized.

Twenty-two Poles injured after bus crash in southern Turkey

People look at the wreckage of a bus carrying tourists from Poland after an accident in the southern resort town of Kemer, Turkey, July 23, 2019. Demiroren News Agency (DHA) via REUTERS

ISTANBUL July 24, 2019 - At least 22 Polish citizens were injured, including three seriously, after a bus crashed down a wooded slope near the southern Turkish resort of Kemer on Tuesday, according to a Polish ministry and Turkish and Polish media.

“Seven people are still in hospital. Amongst these seven, three are seriously injured,” Ewa Suwara, a spokeswoman for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Wednesday.

Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper said Russian and Norwegian tourists were also on board, adding that a total of 25 were wounded, mostly by broken glass, and taken to hospitals.

Turkish TV footage from Kemer, near Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, showed people climbing back up to the road from an overturned bus.

Suwara said 38 Poles were on board and added the country’s consular services have contacted the families of those injured.

 

[angelburst29]

Polish rights campaigners gather in Warsaw to condemn homophobic violence

A participant attends a protest against violence that took place against the LGBT community during the first pride march in Bialystok earlier this month, in Warsaw, July 27, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Over 1,000 people gathered in Warsaw on Saturday in support of LGBT rights a week after the first pride march in the city of Bialystok was marred by violence.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has made LGBT rights a campaign issue ahead of parliamentary elections expected in October, with many politicians arguing pride marches promote unnecessary public displays of sexuality.

“The tension is growing and is tied to the politics of the ruling party, which are hateful and intolerant,” said Marta Zawadzka, a 17-year-old student who attended the gathering. She said examples “include blaming LGBT people and painting them as paedophiles and bad people.”

Disapproval over displays of LGBT rights spilled over on the streets of Bialystok last Saturday. Videos posted on Twitter showed men attacking marchers and shouting anti-LGBT insults.

Police have detained over 30 people in connection with the violence while politicians, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, have condemned the attacks.

A Warsaw court this week put a temporary hold on the distribution of “LGBT-free zone” stickers distributed by a Polish conservative magazine.

Those who gathered on Saturday in solidarity with Bialystok waved LGBT rainbow flags and carried rainbow umbrellas, with some condemning the week’s events.

Analysts say PiS hopes to reenergize its mainly rural base by vowing to push back against Western liberalism and benefit from the deepening divisions in society over policies toward minority groups, the environment, abortion and migration.

“Everyone has the right to gather and express their views on any matter. In Poland, we have freedom of assembly,” a PiS spokeswoman stated.

 

[angelburst29]

A mystery?

Mayor offers reward to first couple to have a boy in village where only girls are born

The village in the south of Poland has a population of just 299 people. Google maps

July 24, 2019 - A Polish mayor is offering locals a reward if they have a baby boy after it emerged that in the last nine years only girls have been born in their village.

The village of Miejsce Odrzańskie, in the south of Poland near the border with the Czech Republic, has less than 300 hundred inhabitants, and most of them are female.

The last boy to be born in the village, and who still lives there, was 12 years ago.

Tomasz Golasz, head of the volunteer fire brigade – which is also staffed mainly by women – said: “It has been going on for several decades.

Father of two girls Tomasz Golasz (R), head of the volunteer fire brigade which is staffed mainly by women said he would like to have a son but it was 'probably unrealistic.'MDP i OSP Miejsce Odrzańskie/Facebook

To try and find an answer, mayor of the local council for the region of Cisek where the village lies, Rajmund Frischko, began exploring historical records to see if this was just a recent anomaly.

The dad of two girls said: “We looked into it further, reviewing birth certificates. I think that what the older residents say is confirmed.

“Girls are constantly born and the birth of boys is rare. Explaining this puzzle will not be easy.”

The news has now piqued the interest of a Professor Rafał Płoski, Head of the Department of Medical Genetics at the Medical University of Warsaw.

He said: “You have to go deep into the history and check the birth statistics. Then you should check if the girl's parents are not related to each other, even to a very distant extent.

“The next step, conduct an accurate interview with parents and children, check the environmental conditions. Only then can some trail appear.”

In the meantime, mayor Frischko has stepped in to try and help. He told state broadcaster TVP1: “I think the situation is unusual and it is worth trying to find out why.

“For my part, I have decided to reward the parents of the first boy born. “I will not reveal exactly how, but I assure you that the gift will be attractive.”

US president to visit Poland on Aug. 31-Sept. 2 – Polish president's aide

On September 1, President Trump will take part in ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two, in Warsaw.

July 30, 2019 - US President Donald Trump will pay a visit to Poland on August 31-September 2, the Polish president's chief aide, Krzysztof Szczerski, told PAP on Tuesday.

On September 1, President Trump will take part in ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two, in Warsaw, said Szczerski.

Szczerski added that the details of the visit will be announced in an official communique that will be issued by the White House.

The presidential minister, Wojciech Kolarski, announced later on Tuesday that President Trump "is expected to deliver a speech during the observances marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII" in Warsaw.

Kolarski told reporters that this will be the ninth meeting of Polish President Andrzej Duda with Donald Trump, and the 13th meeting between President Duda and a serving US president.

"Under way are talks regarding the detailed programme of the visit. We will be keeping you up to date with all the details," he said.

Kolarski recalled that during his Polish visit in 2017, President Trump had delivered a speech. "Of course, we expect such a speech on September 1," he added.

Referring to the list of guests invited to attend the observances, Kolarski said that "confirmations have been coming in."

"In the second half of August, after August 15, we will inform you who has accepted the invitation and what the list of guests for the September 1 observances looks like," he declared.

Polish PM second most influential EU leader - survey

PM Morawiecki was supported by 21.4 percent of respondents while Angela Merkel by 55.7 percent. Jakub Kaczmarczyk/PAP

July 22, 2019 - Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been described as the EU's second most influential leader in an IBRiS survey commissioned by the Interia web portal and published on Monday. He was preceded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

PM Morawiecki was supported by 21.4 percent of respondents while Angela Merkel by 55.7 percent. With 7.1 percent, French President Emmanuel Macron placed third.

The Hungarian PM, Viktor Orban received 2.7 percent of the votes.

The IBRiS survey for Interia was carried out using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) method, on a representative group of 1,100 respondents on July 12-13.

 

[Gruchaa]

Poles commemorate 75th anniversary of Warsaw Uprising
Drivers stopped their cars and citizens stood still, with some letting off flares, as sirens rung around the city at 1700 (1500GMT), to mark the "W" hour, the time when on August 1, 1944, Polish resistance fighters attempted to overthrow the Nazi occupiers. In the city's Old Town, crowds stood in the form of the 'Kotwica', the symbol of the Polish Underground State and Home Army as they took part in the long-standing tradition of holding a minute's silence, to show their solidarity with insurgents who died 75 years ago. World War II veterans who took part in the uprising were among those present at a memorial service held in Warsaw's Powazki military cemetery, where floral wreaths had been laid in honour of their fallen comrades.
On August 1, 1944 thousands of poorly-armed Warsaw residents rose up against the German Nazi forces to take control of the city ahead of the advancing Soviet army. The uprising infuriated Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who ordered the destruction of the city. Germans sent in their elite SS troops, bombed the city from the air, pounded it with heavy artillery and used civilians as human shields. Civilians were routinely executed - 150,000 died, 165,000 were sent to labour camps and a further 350,000 displaced. The Red Army stood idle across the Wisla river, at one point several hundred metres from heavy fighting, and did not allow Western allies to use its airfields for airlifts. The Warsaw Uprising collapsed after 63 days, leaving the city in ruins and historians divided about whether the insurgency should have been launched in the first place. (http://www.tvn24.pl)

 

[angelburst29]

Poland's president wants parliamentary election on Oct 13

Poland's President Andrzej Duda said on Friday he prefers Oct. 13 for the next parliamentary election which the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is expected to win again thanks to generous social programs and strong economic growth.

Liberals fear unrest as Poland Catholic Church doubles down on anti-gay rhetoric

Poland's Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party's dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop's remarks to incitement to genocide.

In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski, described Poland as under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers.

“Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is no new one that wants to control our souls, hearts and minds,” he told a mass in the medieval St. Mary’s Basilica, one of the most important churches for Poles.

“Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow,” he was quoted as saying by private TVN24 broadcaster.

Robert Biedron, an openly gay politician from the progressive Wiosna party, denounced the sermon.

“We already had such people, politicians who used similar words and that lead to huge slaughters, genocide. This is an incitement to crime, to hatred,” he told news website wirtualnapolska.pl.

Ahead of parliamentary elections expected in October, the ruling PiS party has made hostility to gays a central focus of its campaign, depicting LGBT rights as a dangerous foreign idea that undermines traditional values in staunchly Catholic Poland.

The issue spilled onto the streets in July when thousands of demonstrators went on a rampage through the provincial city of Bialystok to block the city’s first ever LGBT pride parade.

Video showed anti-gay demonstrators, who vastly outnumbered those attending the pride event, chasing people through the streets and beating them. Thirty people were arrested.

 

[angelburst29]

Poland's president wants parliamentary election on Oct 13

Poland to hold parliamentary election on October 13
Polish president's office confirmed on Tuesday that the country will hold its parliamentary election on Oct. 13, which most pollsters expect the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to win thanks to generous social spending and robust economic growth.

“The president has just signed an appropriate ordinance regarding the election to be held on October 13,” Blazej Spychalski, a spokesman for Poland President Andrzej Duda, said during a broadcasted announcement, confirming Duda’s initial proposal last week regarding the election date.

A survey last week by pollster IBRIS showed that PiS would attract 41.7% of votes, versus 25% for the main opposition group Civic Coalition and 10.2% for the liberal and leftist movement.

Debate in the campaign is likely to center around LGBT rights, a hot issue in the devoutly Catholic nation of 38 million, and social benefits as well as air pollution and energy.

 

[angelburst29]

Poland's parliament speaker resigns amid private flights scandal


Poland's parliament speaker, Marek Kuchcinski, said on Thursday he would resign after it was revealed that he used government aircraft for private trips by family members.

With elections set for October, the scandal has embarrassed the ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has said it is cleaning up an alleged legacy of graft and communist influence tolerated by previous governments.


“I plan to submit my resignation tomorrow,” Kuchcinski told a news conference, three days after he apologized for using government Gulfstream jet for 23 flights with his family.

Political analysts said that until Thursday the PiS had adopted a wait and see approach, hoping the scandal would die off amidst the summer holiday lull.

But after Polish media published further details of the flights and pointed to discrepancies in explanations by Kuchcinski and the government, the potential damage became too serious to gloss over.

A poll published by Super Express tabloid on Thursday showed that almost two third of Poles wanted Kuchcinski to resign.

A survey taken by IBRiS pollster before the scandal broke gave PiS 41.7% if elections were held now, with the main opposition bloc, the centrist Civic Platform, at 25% and a group of leftist parties at 10.2%.

 

[angelburst29]

Police presence strong at Polish pride march in wake of violence

People take part in the city's first "Equality Parade" rally in support of the LGBT community, in Plock, Poland August 10, 2019. Agencja Gazeta/Jedrzej Nowicki via REUTERS

More than 1000 people took part in a pride parade in the central Polish city of Plock protected by a cordon of armed police as LGBT rights became a hot button issue in Catholic Poland ahead of a parliamentary election in October.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has made hostility to gays a central focus of its campaign, depicting LGBT rights as a dangerous foreign idea that undermines traditional values.

A pride parade in the provincial city of Bialystok in July was marred by violence after anti-gay protesters chased people through the streets and beat them.

Critics say PiS has fomented anti-gay sentiment and helped lead the violence against the LGBT community in Poland.

Marchers walked through the streets of Plock waving rainbow flags while surrounded by police in riot gear, TV footage from private broadcaster TVN showed.

Politicians, including Robert Biedron, one of Poland’s first openly gay politicians who launched the leftist Wiosna party earlier this year, attended the march.

A group of counter-protesters gathered at the Plock parade and chanted homophobic insults but were blocked from interacting with parade participants by the heavy police presence.

A Plock police spokeswoman stated there were around 950 counter-protesters in total and that two people were detained.

No serious incidents took place, the spokeswoman added, although there were a few scuffles with police, TV footage showed.

“For many years in Poland not much was done to handle such violence. It’s time for these hateful crimes to be punished,” Biedron said in a speech ahead of the march, broadcast on TVN.

 

[angelburst29]

Poland's ruling party emerges unscathed from flights scandal

Poland's parliament speaker Marek Kuchcinski speaks during a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, August 8, 2019. Dawid Zuchowicz/Agencja Gazeta/via REUTERS

Poland's ruling nationalists appear on track to win October's parliamentary vote, three opinion polls show, despite a scandal over the private use of government aircraft by the party's speaker of parliament who was forced to resign on Friday.

On Monday, a survey conducted between Aug. 9-10 for the Rzeczpospolita daily by IBRIS showed the Law and Justice (PiS) party winning 41.2% of votes, versus 41.7% shown in an IBRIS poll before the flights were reported by Polish media.

Two other polls published over the weekend showed similar levels of support.

The party said flight logs showed Marek Kuchcinski, a long-time senior PiS loyalist, did nothing illegal in the journeys, which included flights to the southeastern city of Rzeszow with his family using aircraft reserved for government business.

Analysts said his resignation was an effort to placate more moderate voters ahead of the Oct. 13 vote.

PiS hopes to expand its mandate for more conservative reforms, and needs to ensure moderate voters who may be concerned over its spat with the EU over democratic standards, such as over changes to the role of the judiciary, do not turn to other parties.

“PiS showed its critics that it listens to them and respects them,” Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at Warsaw University, said.

Since winning power in 2015, PiS has kept a steady lead over centrist and liberal opposition groupings, benefiting from fast economic growth, low unemployment and public support for its nationalist rhetoric.

The opposition has struggled to gain control of public debate, with various groups shifting alliances in a bid to boost their standing in the polls.

In the run-up to the ballot, opposition groups have coalesced into three blocs.

Poland’s Civic Platform formerly led by European Council President Donald Tusk has formed the Civic Coalition with smaller liberal party Nowoczesna.

The progressive Wiosna party of Robert Biedron, Poland’s first openly gay lawmaker, has formed a coalition with two left-wing parties, including a grouping of ex-communist officials.

The center-right, agrarian Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL) has gone into coalition with the anti-establishment Kukiz ‘15 party.

An IBRIS poll for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily and RMF FM showed PiS voters were much less concerned about the scandal than opposition supporters, with only 18% judging Kuchcinski’s use of the flights as “very bad”, compared with 91% of Civic Coalition voters.

Germany must up defense spending, relying on U.S. "offensive" - U.S. envoy

Richard Grenell U.S. Ambassador to Germany attends the "Rally for Equal Rights at the United Nations (Protesting Anti-Israeli Bias)" aside of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Germany’s reluctance to spend more on defense and its continued reliance on U.S. troops for protection is offensive, Richard Grenell, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany said on Friday.
Grenell’s comments signal U.S. President Donald Trump’s impatience with Germany’s failure to raise defense spending to 2% of economic output as mandated by the NATO military alliance.

“It is offensive to assume that the U.S. taxpayers continue to pay for more than 50,000 Americans in Germany but the Germans get to spend their (budget) surplus on domestic programs,” Grenell told the dpa news agency.

Germany’s fiscal plans foresee the defense budget of NATO’s second-largest member rising to 1.37% of output next year before falling to 1.24% in 2023.

Eastern European countries like Poland and Latvia, fearful of Russia after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, have raised their military spending to the 2% target, drawing praise from Trump who wants Germany to do the same.

U.S. complaints about Germany’s defense spending pre-date Trump but relations with the United States have deteriorated since he became president.

Trump said in June he would deploy 1,000 U.S. troops from Germany to Poland, which sees the measure as deterrence against possible aggression from Russia.

Georgette Mosbacher, U.S. Ambassador to Poland, has made a similar criticism of Germany’s reluctance to commit more financial resources to NATO.

“Poland meets its 2% of GDP spending obligation toward NATO. Germany does not. We would welcome American troops in Germany to come to Poland,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

The United States has more than 33,000 soldiers in Germany and an additional 17,000 U.S. civilian employees to support them. It is believed the United States also has nuclear warheads in Germany.

 

[Gruchaa]

https://newsbeezer.com/polandeng/prosecutors-office-over-the-death-of-dawid-kostecki-possible-criminal-nature-of-death/

Prosecutor's office investigates the death of former boxer Dawid Kostecki

The section did not specify where the syringe traces came from – said in a conversation with TVN24 attorney Roman Giertych, representative of Dawid Kostecki's family, referring to doubts about the boxer's cause of death. – Normally, people do not stab a needle in the neck before committing suicide, – Giertych added. The prosecution spoke on Monday about the "stab, puncture or puncture" Kostecki's body. "It's just old-fashioned crusts that have nothing to do with the death of the deceased," she wrote in a statement. Previously, the prosecutor, who investigated the death of the boxer, had doubts about suicide

On 2 August, the body of former boxer Dawid Kostecki was found in the cell of the detention center in Białołęka. He should hang himself on a sheet loop and lie under a blanket in bed. Despite revival, he could not be saved.

The autopsy confirmed Kostecki's suicide
As stated in a statement released on 8 August by Lt. Col. Elżbieta Krakowska, the spokeswoman for the General Director of the Prison Service, Kostecki excluded the body's autopsy that the boxer committed suicide. At the same time, it was discovered that the deceased had already tried to kill himself in the wild.

"This is due to what he said when he was admitted to prison in 2015," the statement says.

The Gazeta Wyborcza from Monday released new information about the circumstances of the boxer's death. He returns to the moment when the inmates discover the boxer's body. While writing, prosecutors Wojciech Kapuściński and Piotr Preneta were sent to the event and accompanied by a forensic specialist, Wojciech Sadowski. "Prison detainees Kapuściński and Sadowski took care of the cell and the body, and they made reports – they started at 10:47 am and ended at 1:30 pm," reports the diary.

" Wyborcza "also reached the official mark of prosecutor Kapuściński. He found no signs of combat or defense in it, but noticed a broad furrow on his neck. "Wyborcza" writes that the prosecutor "had doubts whether it was suicide."
"After turning his body over on his stomach, he discovered two tiny traces in the nape of his neck at a distance of 0.5 cm." In the note is a copy of "Wyborcza", wrote Kapuściński, "they resemble traces that Prosecutor Kapuściński suspected that Kostecki might have been drunk, so he backed up a sheet of paper, a blanket and three pieces of mattress as evidence – as the newspaper notes at the neck, the syringe can drip on the sheet or blanket.In the official note, the prosecutor's office even wrote about the "possible crime of death" – informs "Wyborcza".

The role of Kostecki in the" Podkarpackie Affair "[19659006] In the remainder of the article, "Gazeta Wyborcza" outlines the background of the so-called Podkarpackie scandal, in which Kostecki played an important role. In 2016, on the basis of his entry in the social media and subsequent statements, the agreement between the local police officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the owners of the escort agencies, brothers Aleksander and Yevgeny R. as the newspaper reported in this matter other people. One of them was Grzegorz W., who told the daily about the background of the brothers R. As he quoted: "People of the lampstand were invited, rich, wealthy and many of them For example, in the judiciary or in politics. "As we read, Grzegorz W. tragically died in January this year.

"Wyborcza" recalls the information of one of the former employees of Grzegorz W., who claims that the cause of death of W. was not "drowned to death", as it should spread the service and hung. "He could not withstand the pressure," says a colleague quoted by the daily.

The article also shows the case of a witness in this case, the well-known owner of the agency Rzeszów, Maciej G., who also died tragically. "He was always crazy, it's true, but not so much to shoot himself in the head, and it happened" – quoting "GW" from the testimony of one of the former gangsters.

In connection with the disclosure of new information questioning earlier findings on the cause of death of Kostecki, the family representative, lawyer Roman Giertych, filed on Friday the villages for another section and change of legal qualification in the investigation. He demands the investigation of the murder.

On Monday, in a social media post on Giertych, he referred, among other things, to information that "Wyborcza" described. "Dawid Kostecki was a witness whose testimony began with the investigation of a brothel in which a criminal group recorded known persons and minors were used in. Recently, as the media reported, two more witnesses died in suicide." There are many more in this matter Subjects pending, "wrote the lawyer.

 

[angelburst29]

Poland's rights commissioner on faultlines of divided country

Adam Bodnar, Poland's Commissioner for Human Rights speaks during an interview with Reuters in Warsaw, Poland July 16, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

With his square, horn-rimmed glasses and measured academic tone, Poland's human rights commissioner seems an unlikely figure to attract a crowd at a rock festival.

The lawyer has found himself at the meeting point of conflicting currents in Polish society. He is feted by liberals as a relentless defender of civil rights at a time when critics of the government say they are under threat, but is a bugbear for many on the right for his criticism of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party and defense of minority groups.

“I am really not able to understand, even with the best of good will, why ... for four days in a row I was the top item on the main news program,” Bodnar, 42, told the festival crowd, referring to attacks on him by state-run television over his questioning of the manner in which an alleged child murderer was arrested.

The Pol’and’Rock Festival, held on a dusty field near the German border, is organized by well-known liberal fundraiser Jurek Owsiak.

For PiS, Bodnar’s efforts to defend gay rights activists or people detained by police in criminal investigations embody a liberal agenda the party sees as a threat to the country’s traditional Catholic values.

“In my opinion he stands up for some citizens and not others. He is becoming more of an opposition politician than an ombudsman”, Ryszard Czarnecki, a PiS politician and member of European Parliament stated. Bodnar said his role can be tough.

“I have a few principles which help me, but they also make it more difficult. Firstly - don’t get offended. Secondly - don’t attack people personally. Thirdly - in spite of everything look for things which bring people together rather than dividing them,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“Sometimes I feel isolated... An ombudsman as the person who speaks up for the values of the liberal democratic world can have a sense of isolation.”

But while Bodnar may feel empowered to censure the PiS government, with the weight of a state institution behind him, he fears a growing number of Poles do not.

FEELING MUZZLED
Bodnar believes a succession of legal threats against government opponents, researchers and NGOs countering the party’s conservative agenda has shrunk the space for public debate in Poland.

“There are people who could do something, but for a variety of reasons they don’t, they are afraid or feel constrained,” he said.

One case Bodnar points to as evidence of PiS pressure on non-governmental institutions is a spat last month between the Justice Ministry and a foundation popularizing the study of law.

The foundation accused PiS of circumventing parliamentary procedure, the constitution and international standards to adopt new criminal rules as part of the government’s “tough-on-crime” policy. In response, the ministry threatened to sue its members.

“The ministry backed off, of course, but in the long term such a signal leads to a reduction in the number of people willing to engage in public debate (...) because we don’t know what the consequences there may be,” Bodnar said.

PiS’s support is riding high ahead of a national election scheduled for Oct. 13. It has taken advantage of robust economic growth in central Europe’s largest economy to implement a generous program of social spending, while its defense of traditional values is popular with many Poles.

PiS argues its wide-ranging reforms of the justice system and public media, which have attracted accusations of a tilt toward authoritarian rule, aim to make Polish society more fair and true to its Catholic heritage.

MEDIA OWNERSHIP CHANGES
However, Bodnar said a PiS ambition to curb foreign media ownership if it wins another term could further muzzle public criticism of the government.

PiS officials have signaled in recent weeks the party will consider steps to bring more news outlets under of the control of Polish capital, in a policy similar to that of PiS ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.


The potential changes to media ownership, a policy called “repolonisation”, are touted by PiS as a reform that should be tackled to ensure open debate, free of foreign influence.

Few details have emerged so far, although officials said various steps could be considered, including legal caps on ownership or efforts to buy publishers or broadcasters.

“It’s a scenario which appears rather real,” Bodnar said. “If new rules are introduced to influence the rights of owners, the profitability of investments, it can lead to a further diminishing of public debate.”

Slideshow (2 Images)
Poland's rights commissioner on faultlines of divided country

 

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Over two dozen rescuers try to save trapped cavers in Poland

Mountain rescue team (TOPR) members board a helicopter in Zakopane, Poland August 18, 2019, to join the search operation for two cave climbers trapped in the Tatra mountains. Agencja Gazeta/Marek Podmokly via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. POLAND OUT NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN POLAND

WARSAW August 18, 2019 - More than two dozen rescue workers are battling to save two cavers trapped in a cavern in Poland's Tatra mountains, the mountain rescue service said on Sunday, after a narrow tunnel flooded with water, blocking their exit.

A representative of the rescue service said it had not yet been possible to establish contact with the two cavers and concern was growing due to their long exposure to extreme conditions.

Rescuers were preparing to use explosives to open a route to access the two but the process would not be quick.

"The only way to get to them is through a series of very complicated pyrotechnic actions", said Jan Krzysztof, head of the Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue group, in an impromptu interview broadcast by TVN.

“We have the necessary materials, but this will take a long time,” Krzysztof said. “We have to be ready for work that could last days if not weeks.”

The two became trapped in the Wielka Sniezna cave, the longest and deepest in the Tatra mountains, on Saturday and rescue services were notified by colleagues who had accompanied them on the excursion, TVN reported.

The first rescue group was sent in on Saturday evening and since then two more groups, including workers from the fire department in Krakow, had been dispatched, TVN said.

Additional support could come from Slovak rescuers, Krzysztof told reporters.

Rescue conditions were particularly difficult due to flooding which could also endanger the rescuers, TVN reported.


Poland's Kaczynski condemns gay pride marches as election nears

FILE PHOTO: Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks during a party convention ahead of the EU election, in Krakow, Poland May 19, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

Poland must resist the "traveling theater" of gay pride marches, the leader of its conservative ruling party said on Sunday, as the staunchly Roman Catholic country gears up for a parliamentary election on Oct. 13.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has used LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights as a key campaign issue, depicting them as a dangerous Western idea that undermines traditional Catholic values.

"The hard offensive, this traveling theater that is showing up in different cities to provoke and then cry ... we are the ones who are harmed by this, it must be unmasked and discarded", PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a party campaign picnic in the town of Stalowa Wola.

The law must be fully enforced to “regulate these matters”, he added, without elaborating.

Kaczynski also said he was “grateful” to a Polish archbishop who said this month that Poland was under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners whom he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers.

Only PiS can defend the Catholic Church and ward off threats to the traditional family coming from the West, he said.

“(We must) live in freedom, and not be subject to all that is happening to the west of our borders... where freedom is being eliminated,” Kaczynski added.

Political analysts say PiS’ criticism of LGBT rights could be a strategy to rally its conservative rural base for the election. It is leading in opinion polls and is expected to win a fresh four-year mandate.

Critics say PiS has fomented violence toward the gay community in recent weeks as it has continued to criticize what it calls “LGBT ideology”.

A “gay pride” march in the northeastern city of Bialystok was marred by violence in July as counter-protesters chased down, attacked and yelled at participants.

Police provided heavy protection to a similar march this month in the central city of Plock.

 

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A WW2 battle reverberates in Poland's national election campaign

People visit the World War Two Westerplatte Memorial in Gdansk, Poland, August 12, 2019. Picture taken August 12, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

GDANSK, Poland August 19, 2019 - A monument to a battle fought in the opening days of World War Two has become a new frontline in the fight between Poland’s ruling nationalists and the liberal opposition in the countdown to a parliamentary election on Oct. 13.

The granite column that towers over the Baltic port of Gdansk commemorates the seven-day siege of Westerplatte in September 1939, when dozens of Polish soldiers defied the overwhelming firepower of a Nazi German naval fleet.

For many Poles the monument - comprising the column and a small park - is a symbol of national courage, but the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) accuses the Gdansk municipality, which is linked to the opposition, of allowing the site to fall into disrepair. Near the column stand ruined barracks with rusted wires protruding.

Last month PiS rushed legislation through parliament to transfer oversight of the area to the central government in Warsaw.

Critics of PiS say the row over Westerplatte is part of a broader government policy of historical revisionism they say is aimed at fanning nationalist sentiment among voters and discrediting the opposition.

PiS officials say the bravery of the Westerplatte soldiers has not been celebrated sufficiently.

Since it won power in 2015, PiS has repeatedly accused liberal governments that ruled Poland since the collapse of communism in 1989 of failing to conduct “the politics of history” effectively, allowing young Poles to forget patriotism.

PiS, a socially conservative, euroskeptic party, also says Poland can only be effective in the international arena if its Western allies come to understand and appreciate the extent of its suffering and bravery under Nazi and then Soviet occupation.

“After 1989, what we call the politics of memory or history was badly neglected. There was no tool, capacity or desire to carry this symbol,” Karol Nawrocki, a historian nominated by PiS to run a World War Two museum in Gdansk stated. His museum will oversee an overhaul of the Westerplatte site.

Underscoring divisions over remembrance, the PiS government has moved the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two from Gdansk, where such events have been held in the past, to Warsaw and the town of Wielun, the site of another battle in September 1939.

While Gdansk authorities will still hold their own ceremony, events in Warsaw will be attended by U.S. President Donald Trump, who shares the PiS government’s views on a range of issues, including migration, climate change and abortion.

BATTLES OVER THE PAST
The government’s message seems to be working. Opinion polls show PiS likely to win a second four-year term in October with the support of more than 40 percent of Poles.

An alliance of liberal parties called the Civic Coalition is polling second with less than 30 percent.

Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, the mayor of Gdansk who has long been tied with the opposition, denies the city has neglected the Westerplatte site but says PiS is trying to foment a retrogressive nationalism.

“This is a message that is being used to influence voters,” Dulkiewicz told Reuters. “Eighty years after the start of World War Two, do we want to glorify war or do we want to think about how to have peaceful relations in the future?”

“We should be building relationships between people, between societies, to prevent war,” she said.

Gdansk, cradle of the Solidarity trade union that toppled communist rule and now one of Poland’s most liberal cities, has been the focus of tensions over remembrance in the past.

Last year, the PiS government decided to slash the state subsidy to a museum commemorating Solidarity, saying it had become too supportive of opposition politicians.

Criticism of Poland’s transition from communism is central to the PiS goal of redefining how national history is perceived.

While hailing the end of Soviet domination, PiS says liberal politicians wasted the chance to create a fairer society true to its Christian roots after 1989.

It says more should have been done in those heady days of transition to purge state institutions of communist officials and also to shield more vulnerable Poles from the impact of painful market reforms.

In Gdansk, some voters disagree with the PiS plan to spruce up the monument.

“I belong to a large group of people who still see Westerplatte as a symbol of our resistance,” said 91-year-old Jerzy Grzywacz, who runs a veterans association and remembers cycling as a boy to watch the battle to defend the site.

“I’d like very much for Westerplatte to remain just the way it was on Sept. 7, 1939. It should unite us, not divide us.”

Slideshow (6 Images)
A WW2 battle reverberates in Poland's national election campaign

 

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Polish opposition unites in bid to wrest Senate from ruling nationalists

Polish opposition parties have joined forces to try to win a majority in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, in parliamentary elections on Oct. 13, as they struggle to oust the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) from power.

Opinion polls show PiS winning a second four-year term with more than 40 percent of the vote for the more powerful lower house, the Sejm, which is elected on a system of proportional representation based on party lists.

But the Senate is chosen on a system of first-past-the-post, whereby the candidate who wins most votes in a given constituency is duly elected. By agreeing not to put up rival candidates, the opposition parties increase their chances of defeating PiS.

“We believe that a list of jointly agreed candidates for the Senate offers us an opportunity to win the Senate elections,” Krzysztof Gawkowski, secretary-general of the leftist Wiosna party, told private Radio Zet on Sunday.

The Senate scrutinizes, debates and can reject legislation passed by the Sejm.

Critics say PiS has used its current majority in both the Sejm and the Senate to rush through bills without proper oversight or time to analyze their impact.

PiS, a socially conservative, euroskeptic party but which leans to the left on economic policy, hopes to win a two thirds majority in the Sejm in the October election, which would allow it to change Poland’s constitution.

But the opposition could block such a move if it held a majority of the Senate’s 100 seats.

The opposition groupings involved in the Senate deal include the centrist Civic Coalition and several leftist parties.

“If the opposition parties don’t compete with each other (in the Senate race) and unite behind one candidate in each district, they have a chance to win a Senate majority,” said Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at Warsaw University.