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Bagpipes and techno blast at Warsaw pro-choice march, but menace lurks (The Observer)
There was a sense of euphoria as the various columns of the protest converged in central Warsaw into a single demonstration of 100,000 people, defying coronavirus restrictions banning gatherings of more than five. As they chanted, the red lightning bolt symbol of the Polish Women’s Strike was projected on to the giant communist-era Palace of Science and Culture as police helicopters circled.
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Bagpipes and techno blast at Warsaw pro-choice march, but menace lurks (The Observer)
It was a surreal sight – and a terrible sound. On Friday evening, as tens of thousands of pro-choice protesters gathered in Warsaw for a massive demonstration against a near-total…
Pro-choice supporters hold biggest-ever protest against Polish government (The Guardian)
About one hundred thousand protesters took to the streets of the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Friday, in the largest demonstration of popular anger directed against Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and…
Polish pro-choice protests continue with blockades and red paint (The Guardian)
Thousands of protesters turned out in towns and cities across Poland on Monday as a political crisis sparked by an impending near total ban on abortion showed no sign of…
The Polish IPO with a high price tag and even higher hopes (Financial Times)
When the IPO of Allegro, Poland’s biggest ecommerce company, was announced earlier this month it had a lofty valuation attached and some equally lofty hopes — that it would boost…
Law and Justice loses touch with Poland’s moderate Catholics (Financial Times)
Polish president Andrzej Duda visited Pope Francis in the Vatican on Friday, in a meeting between two men seen by many in Poland as embodying very different visions for the…
The power struggle at the heart of Poland’s political turmoil (Financial Times)
The collapse in talks over a government reshuffle in Warsaw last week has raised the prospect of early elections and laid bare a power struggle at the heart of the…
Poland takes a back-seat role in Belarus standoff (Financial Times)
On September 26, a star-studded concert will be held in Poland’s national football stadium in support of the Belarusians demonstrating against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. This will be just…
Poland’s ruling coalition on verge of collapse (Financial Times)
Poland’s ruling rightwing coalition is on the verge of collapse, with senior members of the Law and Justice party declaring that it was prepared to form a minority government and…
‘It feels like it’s game over’: Polish liberals despair after Duda’s win (The Guardian)
Anaemic grey clouds hung over much of Warsaw as the city’s liberals and progressives came to terms with the fact that it will almost certainly be another three years, during…
Future of ‘Third Republic’ defines run-off vote in Poland (The Guardian)
It was an event – or rather two events – that marked the symbolic nadir of 30 years of rancorous political division in Poland since the fall of communism in 1989. Poland’s…
‘Declaration of war’: Polish row over judicial independence escalates (The Guardian)
A confrontation between the Polish government and senior judges has escalated dramatically, prompting an anguished response in Brussels, after the country’s supreme court and parliament issued conflicting rulings on the…
European judges join silent rally to defend Polish justice (The Guardian)
Judges from 20 European countries joined their Polish counterparts on a silent march of protest through Warsaw on Saturday, in an unprecedented public display of international judicial solidarity. Wearing their…
Poland’s ruling party targeting sex education (The Lancet)
According to a law passed in 1993, Poland’s school curriculum is required to include “knowledge about human sexual life, the principles of conscious and responsible parenthood, the value of family,…
‘Cruder than the Communists’: Polish TV goes all out for rightwing vote (The Guardian)
When Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS) published proposals in July 2017 to give the government direct control over the judiciary, hundreds of thousands of Poles took to…
Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm (The Guardian)
It is as common an occurrence on Polish Twitter as you are likely to get: a pair of conservative activists pouring scorn on the country’s divided liberal opposition. “I burst…
Fight the power: why climate activists are suing Europe’s biggest coal plant (The Guardian)
It is Europe’s biggest coal plant, with annual CO2 emissions roughly equivalent to those of the whole of New Zealand – but the future of the Bełchatów power station in central…
Top Polish official resigns over alleged harassment of judges (The Guardian)
Poland’s deputy minister of justice has resigned and a senior official from his department was dismissed after evidence emerged of a campaign of alleged harassment, intimidation and blackmail coordinated from…
European elections: sex and religion dominate campaigning in Poland (The Guardian)
Campaigning in Poland for the European elections has descended into a war of words over religion, sex and morality after a documentary on clerical abuse raised questions about the government’s ties to…
Woman arrested in Poland over posters of Virgin Mary with rainbow halo (The Guardian)
A woman has been arrested on suspicion of offending religious sentiment, after posters bearing an image of the Virgin Mary with her halo painted in the colours of the rainbow…
‘Sick cow’ meat scandal in Poland: fears raised over other slaughterhouses (The Guardian)
The practice of smuggling sick cows into the meat chain is feared to be more widespread in Poland than previously believed, according to the investigative reporter who captured footage of ill…
Poland’s democratic spring: the fightback starts here (The Guardian)
Poland has become a byword for nationalist populism in recent years as the ruling Law and Justice party defies European democratic norms with its assault on the media and the courts. But…
Secret filming shows sick cows slaughtered for meat in Poland (The Guardian)
Undercover footage that appears to show extremely sick cows being smuggled into a Polish slaughterhouse and sold on with little or no veterinary inspection has raised alarm about standards in…
‘Everything changed in 2016’: Poles in UK struggle with Brexit (The Guardian)
In a series of conversations with the Guardian, Poles have described their shock, dismay, and in some cases, their anger at what many perceive as a resounding rejection of their…
‘We feel orphaned’: Polish city mourns Paweł Adamowicz (The Observer)
Even as Paweł Adamowicz was lying in state at Gdańsk’s European Solidarity Centre, a museum, archive, and public space dedicated to the history and values of the independent trade union…
‘Hatred is becoming more visible’: shocked Gdańsk mourns slain mayor (The Guardian)
The people of Gdańsk are coming to terms with the death of their mayor, Paweł Adamowicz, who was stabbed on stage at a charity concert in front of thousands of…
‘A tragic moment’: thousands gather across Poland to mourn Gdańsk mayor (The Guardian)
Thousands of people have gathered in cities across Poland after the fatal stabbing of Gdańsk mayor PawełAdamowicz in protest at what some say is a creeping pervasiveness of hate speech in Poland’s…
Gdańsk mayor stabbed on stage during charity event in Poland (The Guardian)
The mayor of the northern Polish city of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, was stabbed on Sunday evening in an apparent assassination attempt in front of thousands of people during a charity…
Agnieszka Holland: ‘Maybe freedom is overrated?’ (The Guardian)
In October last year, Piotr Szczęsny, a 54-year-old chemist and father of two, doused himself in petrol in front of the communist-era Palace of Culture and Science in central Warsaw then set himself…
US ambassador scolds Polish officials over claims journalists staged neo-Nazi events (The Guardian)
A diplomatic row has broken out between Poland and the US after the American ambassador in Warsaw accused senior Polish officials of attempting to intimidate journalists from a US-owned broadcaster. The dispute…
Poland’s president addresses far right at independence march (The Guardian)
More than 200,000 people are estimated to have taken part in a controversial independence-day march through central Warsaw on Sunday, after a last-minute agreement was struck between senior politicians and…
Hero’s welcome in Poland awaits hitman who killed Mandela’s ally (The Observer)
Ewa Waluś was a small child when her father, Janusz, emigrated to join his father and brother in South Africa in 1981, just two months before General Jaruzelski’s imposition of martial…
Fears of violence as Polish state intervenes in nationalist march (The Guardian)
Preparations for Sunday’s centenary of the restoration of Polish independence descended into farce this week with a bewildering series of events surrounding a nationalist march due to take place in…
Polish film ‘The Clergy’ sparks hundreds of allegations of abuse (The Guardian)
A film depicting Polish clerics as corrupt, drunken fornicators and paedophiles is smashing box office records in Poland, sparking controversy and encouraging hundreds of people to come forward with allegations of…
Russia linked to 2014 wiretapping scandal in Poland (The Guardian)
Concerns are growing in Poland about potential Russian involvement in a dramatic wiretapping scandal that rocked Polish politics in 2014, after reports emerged that the businessman convicted of organising the…
‘It’s not if, it’s when’: the deadly pig disease spreading around the world (The Guardian)
Ott Saareväli, the owner of a pig farm in Lääne county in Estonia, is starting all over again. In September last year, government vets diagnosed an outbreak of African swine…
Head of Polish supreme court defies ruling party’s retirement law (The Guardian)
The head of the Polish supreme court, Małgorzata Gersdorf, has turned up for work in defiance of a retirement law that would force her to step down immediately. The ruling…
Poland’s supreme court constitutional crisis approaches a standoff (The Guardian)
The president of Poland’s supreme court fears she may be prevented from entering her place of work later this week, she told the Guardian, as a long-running standoff between the…
Poland makes partial U-turn on Holocaust law after Israel row (The Guardian)
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has signed a legal amendment to decriminalise the false attribution to Poland and Poles of crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, signalling a partial…
‘They’re trying to break me’: Polish judges face state-led intimidation (The Guardian)
Three high-profile Polish judges have complained of a “state-led campaign of intimidation and harassment” against them, as Poland’s ruling party tightens its grip on the judiciary. Since taking power in…
Poland’s de facto leader recovering from ‘life-threatening situation’ (The Guardian)
Speculation is mounting about the long-term future of Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS), after senior government officials acknowledged that the party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, who has not…
Poland’s Holocaust law triggers tide of abuse against Auschwitz museum (The Guardian)
Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum have described how they were subjected to a wave of “hate, fake news and manipulations” as a result of the controversy surrounding a…
Slovakia’s PM resigns amid scandal over murder of journalist (The Guardian)
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, has resigned after more than two weeks of political turmoil and public protests sparked by the murder of an investigative journalist. The country’s president, Andrej…
Ireland refuses extradition over concern at Polish justice reforms (The Guardian)
An Irish high court judge has refused to extradite a suspected drugs trafficker to Poland due to concerns about the integrity of the Polish justice system, in a landmark decision…
Polish group sues Argentinian newspaper under new Holocaust law (The Guardian)
A campaign group with close ties to Poland’s ruling rightwing Law and Justice party has filed charges of defamation against a newspaper in Argentina, in the first case to be…
‘They can’t kill us all’: Slovakian journalists defiant after murders (The Guardian)
At 6.30am on Monday, Peter Bárdy, the editor-in-chief of aktuality.sk, a Slovakian news website, received a phone call to inform him that one of his employees had been murdered. Ján…
Shot journalist ‘was investigating Slovakian links to Italian mafia’ (The Guardian)
The Slovakian journalist Ján Kuciak was investigating political corruption linked to an Italian mafia group at the time of his murder, according to a summary of his “last investigation” published…
Poland’s Jews fear for future under new Holocaust law (The Observer)
Even on a clear day, history hangs over Warsaw like smog. Flattened during the Nazi German wartime occupation and rebuilt during communist rule, what Poland’s capital may lack in architectural…
Are Poland’s proposed restitution laws a form of historical denial? (Tablet Magazine)
Unlike almost every other country in Central and Eastern Europe, Poland has never established a comprehensive restitution regime for private property (though a concordat signed in 1997 regulates the restitution…
Polish MPs back even tougher restrictions on abortion (The Guardian)
The Polish parliament has rejected proposed legislation to liberalise abortion laws, voting instead to pass proposals for tough new restrictions to a parliamentary committee for further scrutiny. Poland already has some…
Poland’s prime minister sacks ministers in move to mend ties with EU (The Guardian)
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has dismissed several cabinet-level ministers as the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party seeks to improve strained relations with Brussels. Law and Justice (PiS)…
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Christian Davies 