-- GOWIN’S WORDS ON POLAND POSSIBLY REJECTING ECJ RULING ARE THE TOPIC OF THE DAY - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2018/08/27

-- PLATFORMA IS KNOCKED OUT - THEY WANTED POLES TO COMPARE THE HONESTY OF BOTH FORMATIONS - MICHAŁ KARNOWSKI: “Apparently, the opposition strategists underestimated public memory. Civic Platform’s campaign was meant to focus public attention on the issue of government honesty, effectiveness, the greed of its officials, and to force a comparison between the current situation and the past. The creators of the campaign wanted Poles to ask themselves if they feel robbed by the government? Whether their lives are better or worse?”

-- GREED CAN ALSO BE FOUND IN THE RULING CAMP, BUT IT IS STAMPED OUT - KARNOWSKI CONTINUES: “Honestly, for Civic Platform to delve into this topic, especially without its own positive program, I consider it marketing madness. Of course, greed, bad actions, wrong decisions, unfulfilled promises, and foolish officials can be found in the ruling camp as well. Such is the nature of any human endeavor, any political reality. However, it is stamped out and much rarer than with their predecessors. Civic Platform wanted voters to compare the honesty of PiS members with the honesty of the Civic Platform-PSL team – and that is precisely what Poles have done. That is why, at their own request, Civic Platform, in my opinion, is simply knocked out. Does PiS’s response, in the form of a poster reminding that the money was indeed taken, but from thieves, and given to children, matter here?” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/409380-platforma-lezy-na-deskach-na-wlasne-zyczenie

-- SEPTEMBER 2ND: PIS CONVENTION WITH JAROSŁAW KACZYŃSKI’S PARTICIPATION: “We have now set another element: on September 2nd, a major electoral convention of Law and Justice will be held in Warsaw. This information is confirmed in an interview with the weekly ‘Sieci’ by the head of the PiS campaign staff, MEP Tomasz Poręba: ‘On September 2nd, we are organizing a large electoral convention in Warsaw, where we will inaugurate the nationwide campaign. More precisely: President Kaczyński will do it. We need him greatly, we are counting on him greatly. And I can now reveal to the readers of ‘Sieci’ that this is exactly how it will be. The President’s activity will be significant.’” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/409445-tylko-u-nas-za-tydzien-wielka-konwencja-pis-w-warszawie

-- PIS IS STUCK IN NUMEROUS TRAPS - MAREK BEYLIN in wyborcza.pl: “Thus, PiS is stuck in numerous traps from which it cannot extricate itself. It underestimated the scale of the conflict with the Union over the rule of law and, contrary to boastful assurances, does not know what to do to retain control over the judiciary while remaining in the EU. It failed to notice that by boasting about its generosity in social policy, it has awakened legitimate claims from many groups of Poles to also get a piece of the pie. Nor has it managed to control the greed within its own ranks. And if one were to compile a list of escalating conflicts with various communities and neglect related to poor governance, it would occupy a significant portion of ‘Gazeta Wyborcza.’ Therefore, PiS, as Poręba aptly suggests, is largely a cracked building with a spectacularly painted facade, relying only on the President’s leg.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,23828724,szef-sztabu-wyborczego-pis-przyznal-nasza-partia-stoi-tylko.html

-- PIS IS PREPARING LISTS FOR BRUSSELS - Agata Kondzińska in GW: “Within PiS, they joke that only Senate Deputy Speaker Adam Bielan and Prime Minister’s Chancellery Minister Beata Kempa are sure to run in the May European Parliament elections. Bielan has been assigned the first spot in Mazovia through an annex to the coalition agreement by the leader of Agreement, Jarosław Gowin, and the second spot on the Wrocław list for Beata Kempa was secured in the same way by the head of United Poland, Zbigniew Ziobro. – Others have not yet heard from President Kaczyński that they have a guaranteed start in the elections, but this is not surprising, as the President always informs interested parties about such decisions as late as possible to avoid conflicts and hurt feelings – says our source from PiS.”

-- THE PRIME MINISTER WANTS CANDIDATES FOR MEPs TO LEAVE THE GOVERNMENT QUICKLY - Kondzińska continues: “Currently, there is a dispute within the ruling camp about when ministers who are candidates for MEPs should leave. This applies to Beata Kempa, Beata Szydło, and Anna Zalewska. – Prime Minister Morawiecki favors a reshuffle immediately after the local elections, perhaps as early as December – says a person from the Prime Minister’s circle. However, there is a proposal within PiS for candidates to hold their positions for as long as possible. – If Zalewska leaves in January, the opposition will immediately start saying that a weak minister whose reform failed is leaving. The same applies to Szydło. She will gain more votes as Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs than as a former prime minister outside the government. But the decision ultimately rests with Kaczyński, and he has not yet commented – we hear within PiS.”

-- SZYDŁO AS NUMBER ONE IN CRACOW, PROBLEM WITH TERLECKI - Kondzińska continues: “This does not stop unofficial preparations for the election lists within the party. Former Prime Minister Beata Szydło has been promised the first place in Krakow. Ryszard Legutko is to run immediately after her. – And he should not be so sure that he will get a mandate again. At number three will be someone from Ziobro’s camp, and number four will likely go to Beata Gosiewska – says a PiS activist. (...) With such an arrangement, there is no room for Deputy Speaker Ryszard Terlecki. – Will he run from fifth place? No chance, he doesn't get results. And additionally, he will cannibalize votes with Legutko, they have a similar electorate – analyzes a PiS politician.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,23828176,pis-szykuje-listy-do-europarlamentu-premier-chcialby-szybkiego.html

-- CONFLICT OVER CLEAN AIR IS GROWING IN THE GOVERNMENT, EMILEWICZ AND WOŹNY VS. TCHÓRZEWSKI - Dominika Wantuch in GW: “It is rumored in the corridors that Tchórzewski was intimidated by Morawiecki, although the Prime Minister has remained silent on the Ministry of Energy’s proposals. Today, Woźny and Emilewicz are to announce the first government report on the financial and social costs of smog in Poland. It will include, among other things, how many people died prematurely due to air pollution in 2016 and how much the state treasury lost.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,155287,23827476,w-rzadzie-narasta-konflikt-o-czyste-powietrze-emilewicz-i-wozny.html

-- PATRYK JAKI, WHEN ASKED BY JACEK NIZINKIEWICZ ABOUT CONTROVERSIAL PEOPLE IN HIS CAMPAIGN TEAM, QUESTIONS CIVIC PLATFORM’S STANDARDS: “Okay, I will answer again. Mr. Dariusz Matecki is not and has never been a member of my campaign team. Meanwhile, in the immediate entourage of the Civic Platform candidate, which we are describing in another online campaign #RatuszRafała, there are constantly people with dubious pasts: a medical lobbyist, a former deputy mayor dismissed from the city hall after the reprivatization scandal was revealed, a former district councilor accused of conflict of interest, an incompetent mayor, and finally, an exceptionally vulgar activist from the Platform’s youth wing. They are constantly cooperating with Rafał Trzaskowski. This is precisely the difference in standards between PiS and Civic Platform.”

-- JAKI STATES THAT FOR CIVIC PLATFORM VOTERS, THE COMPARISON WITH SOFIA IS SHOCKING BECAUSE POLITICIANS OF THAT PARTY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE: “I am aware that for Civic Platform politicians, as well as for voters of that party from 2006, 2010, and 2014, this is a shocking comparison. It causes anger, disappointment, and cognitive dissonance. Because until now, they have been selling us a lie that it couldn't be done faster in Warsaw. However, I don’t want to hear ‘it can’t be done’ anymore. The metro will be like with 500 plus – they said it couldn’t be done, and I will prove that it can be done. And if I become mayor, I will immediately start building the 3rd and 4th metro lines. Because I want an ambitious Warsaw.” https://www.rp.pl/Wybory-samorzadowe/308269956-Patryk-Jaki-Zygmunt-III-Waza-tez--byl-sloikiem.html&cid=44&template=restricted

-- POLITICIANS' RELATIVES, CELEBRITIES, COMPROMISED ACTIVISTS ARE PUSHING THEIR WAY INTO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS - Fakt’s top story, including information about PAD’s father and Gołota’s mother. https://www.fakt.pl/wydarzenia/polityka/krewni-politykow-pchaja-sie-na-listy-wyborcze/yc6qfx1

-- APART FROM FANATICAL TROLLS, THE FIGHT BETWEEN CIVIC PLATFORM AND PIS INTERESTS NO ONE - ZUZANNA DĄBROWSKA writes in RZ: “Both coalitions have gotten so caught up in their fight that they probably no longer think about whether anyone beyond the circle of fanatical trolls is interested in such a struggle. If this is what the fight for local governments will consist of, one can abandon dreams of better public transport or affordable housing.” https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/308269959-Dabrowska-PO-zrobila-billboardy-PiS-jeszcze-wiecej.html&cid=44&template=restricted

-- PROSECUTOR FROM TORTURE CASES GOES TO THE SUPREME COURT - GW’s top story - Wojciech Czuchnowski: “In 2006, Prosecutor Adam Roch ordered a woman to be interrogated during childbirth. Despite this, he has just received one of the first placements in the competition for a judge of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,23828250,prokurator-od-tortur-idzie-do-sadu-najwyzszego-adam-roch-kazal.html

-- FAKT ON ZIOBRO'S JUDICIAL REVOLUTION: HIGHER SENTENCES FOR FRAUDSTERS AND THIEVES - LOWERING THE CRIME THRESHOLD, LOAN SHARKING: https://www.fakt.pl/wydarzenia/polityka/beda-surowsze-kary-dla-oszustow-i-zlodziei/bzyejlh

-- TOMASZ PIETRYGA IN RZ ON THE DISAPPOINTING STANCE OF THE KRS - he writes in RZ: “Deeply disappointing. That is how I define the National Council of the Judiciary’s stance regarding the Supreme Court elections. Its outcome is 12 recommendations to the Disciplinary Chamber for candidates overwhelmingly connected in various ways to the government. Six prosecutors subordinate to Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro is too many to attempt to find any justification, let alone an excuse, for the Council’s nominations.”

-- THE KRS COULD HAVE PROVEN ITS CRITICS WRONG - PIETRYGA continues: “For the KRS, this was the only moment to prove that its fierce critics were wrong and that their accusations of politicization were baseless. The Council has lost this chance irretrievably. PiS politicians can also no longer maintain that it was about the good of the judiciary, not about individuals.” https://www.rp.pl/Opinie/308269969-Tomasz-Pietryga-o-wyborach-do-Sadu-Najwyzszego-Zle-strzezona-granica-padla.html

-- DOMINIKA WIELOWIEYSKA ON THE PRIVILEGED TREATMENT OF SOME FROM PIS - including investigations into the Polish Red Cross, Szydło’s accident, and the pardon of security service heads - she writes on wyborcza.pl: “Yes, Ziobro is right: protecting the privileged elite – in this case, the government elite – is one of the pathologies that must be fought and which will perhaps be judged by the courts. If they are still independent.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,23828723,ziobro-ma-racje-ochrona-uprzywilejowanej-elity-to-patologia.html

-- WITOLD GADOMSKI ON HOW PIS HATES THE EU AND THE MEDIA NEGLECT FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ALTHOUGH THEY STRONGLY INFLUENCE EVERY POLE'S FATE: “When the architecture of Europe and the world is changing, it is worth taking part in this reconstruction. The PiS government is not doing this because it hates the European Union, and Jarosław Kaczyński, who makes strategic decisions, is not interested in foreign policy. The world will therefore be rearranged without us, and sooner or later someone will show us our place in this new structure. And only then will we understand that foreign policy affects the fate of every Pole much more strongly than the sensations with which the media feed us daily.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,23827013,polski-zascianek-i-swiatowe-wstrzasy-co-widac-i-czego-nie-widac.html

-- JACEK ŻAKOWSKI ON A PROGRAM FOR THE LEFT: “I don’t have an answer, but I have an exercise proposal. Let’s take three groups: the sick, foreign workers, and those starting independent lives. Let’s try to find an answer to three simple questions concerning these groups. (...) The disproportion has become enormous and is growing. This is partly because younger generations do not find themselves in parliamentary-party democracy. Whoever proposes a democracy that fits the culture of digital generations will rebuild the intergenerational balance and the reality of the democratic system.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,23828720,piszac-program-dla-lewicy-wezmy-trzy-grupy-chorych-zagranicznych.html

-- KACPER PŁAŻYŃSKI: ADAMOWICZ IS CASTING HIMSELF AS A VICTIM OF AN OPPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT TO AVOID QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS CONNECTIONS WITH DEVELOPERS - the PiS candidate says in an interview with TySolem: “As a result of Adamowicz’s recent actions, the last straw has broken for many. The residents of Gdańsk are tired of being held hostage by this way of conducting politics. Paweł Adamowicz is acting in such a way that in future matters that may arise in connection with, for example, his close contacts with developers in Gdańsk, he can present himself as a victim of an oppressive government and gain an alibi that this is a political matter rather than the administration of justice.” http://www.tysol.pl/a23096--tylko-u-nas-K-Plazynski-Adamowicz-usiluje-pokazac-sie-jako-ofiara-opresyjnego-rzadu-by-uzyskac-alibi

-- THE NARRATIVE AGAINST KOZŁOWSKA IS LIKE THE 'FIFTH COLUMN' AGAINST MACIEREWICZ - Zbigniew Parafianowicz in DGP: “The effect is that the current debate about the Open Dialogue Foundation is a festival of hyperbole and scenarios straight out of spy films. In line with the nature of Polish politics, this festival shares many characteristics with the earlier offensive against Antoni Macierewicz. It is enough to recall fragments of Tomasz Piątek’s book, in which the author seriously considers whether Donald Trump was helped only by Russian military intelligence, or perhaps also by the FSB. The publicist presents this cooperation with the Kremlin services not as a hypothesis, but as a fact. Conclusions about ‘long-term connections of Siemion Mogilevich (a Russian mobster – ed.) with the President of the USA’ also appear. In fact, after such reports, Piątek should immediately be placed under a witness protection program and testify in Trump’s impeachment proceedings.” http://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/opinie/artykuly/579930,antoni-maciereiwcz-ludmyla-kozlowska-ukraina-fundacja-otwarty-dialog.html

-- BIRTHDAYS: Jan Wyrowiński, Marek Dyduch, Karolina Tomaszewicz, Ivo Krankowski, Zbigniew Sobotka, Andrzej Anusz.