-- NEWS 300: MORE TVP CHANNELS IN TERRESTRIAL DIGITAL TELEVISION FOR CHRISTMAS: https://300polityka.pl/gospodarka/2018/12/18/news-300-wiecej-kanalow-tvp-na-swieta-w-naziemnej-telewizji-cyfrowej/

-- DWORCZYK CONFIDENT ELECTRICITY PRICES WON'T RISE - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2018/12/18/

-- MAJCHROWSKI INCREASES THE NUMBER OF OFFICIALS - lead story in Dziennik Polski.

-- WILL TARCZYŃSKI BE NEXT? - Fakt on Pawłowicz's departure: “Tarczyński will be next – a prominent PiS politician tells us. During a closed session of the PiS club in Jachranka, inaccessible to the media, the leader spoke about the need to change the language and faces. – The leader said only what we've been saying for a long time: that such extremism harms us, and the only way to win elections is to regain centrist voters – tells us one of the leader’s closest associates.” https://www.fakt.pl/wydarzenia/polityka/dominik-tarczynski-bedzie-nastepny/1j3e4wl

-- WHAT IS PLATFORMA NOT SAYING? - PIOTR MĄCZYŃSKI in GW on reverse VAT: “Why did the work proceed so slowly? There was no convincing answer from PO politicians here.”

-- MĄCZYŃSKI RECOUNTS ANECDOTE ABOUT ROSTOWSKI: “A joke still circulates in the Ministry of Finance about how Rostowski tried to find out if the ministry was transferring his salary. After a brief investigation, it turned out it was. But it was so small from the perspective of the economist's previous experiences that the minister didn't notice it in his account.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,155287,24279540,raport-specjalny-rachunek-za-vat-co-do-ukrycia-maja-byli-ministrowie.html

-- KATARZYNA KOLENDA-ZALESKA in GW on the narrative about Poland: PiS IS GOOD AT IT, THE OPPOSITION CANNOT PRESENT ONE: “But Jarosław Kaczyński is right about one thing. Poles need to be offered a new narrative before the elections. To set goals that have been missing for a long time. PiS is good at this, even if the current attempt to construct a new narrative stems from the fear that Poles will believe in Polexit. The opposition is currently unable to present such a narrative about Poland. Now it has been given a chance. Poland in the heart of Europe is not PiS's narrative.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,24287599,niech-zyje-i-rozkwita-partia-marzen-kazdego-polaka.html

-- THE PRIME MINISTER WILL TAKE ACTUAL CONTROL OF THE KNF - Bartek Godusławski in DGP: “The recently appointed head of the commission will most likely change his deputies soon. The prime minister will take actual control of the office.”

-- GODUSŁAWSKI ON PMM EXPECTING MORE DECISIVE ACTIONS IN GETBACK: “– The Prime Minister is convinced that when the entire market was already speculating about the debt collector's problems, the KNF fell asleep on the matter and should have been more active, not wait until the milk had spilled – claims our interlocutor, indicating that a person from the services will allow for better oversight of issues that may be at the intersection of the office's actions and the CBA or ABW.” https://gospodarka.dziennik.pl/news/artykuly/587490,knf-premier-ustawa-jacek-jastrzebski.html

-- JACEK NIZINKIEWICZ ON THE SCENARIO OF EARLY ELECTIONS - writes in RZ: “The risk is more than significant, but it may turn out to be worth taking, especially since apart from keeping all party factions in check, with each month the opposition will have to organize and unite into a common pro-European anti-PiS front. And a united opposition can be fatal for PiS. We will find out in January whether there will be early elections. The decision rests with one person. And Jarosław Kaczyński has shown many times that he knows how to play all or nothing.” https://www.rp.pl/Polityka/312179915-Nizinkiewicz-Przyspieszone-wybory-uratuja-PiS.html

-- WE WANT TO BUILD A MORE JUST SYSTEM - WARSAW VICE-MAYOR MICHAŁ OLSZEWSKI ON THE WASTE CRISIS - says to DGP: “Today, the fee for waste is the lowest item in the household budget, after bills for electricity, phone, water, sewage, etc. Furthermore, the system in which the number of people in a household is declared and fees are set on this basis is, according to experts, leaky and unverifiable. It is difficult to check how many people actually live in a given household. In addition, we have a significant segment of apartments registered to one person, which function as micro-apartments, and we don't know how many people use them. Therefore, we want to propose two other alternative systems provided for by law to the councilors. Systems of charging fees based on the cubic meter of water consumed or the square meter of occupied area are being considered. Of course, this will not be a 1:1 translation; the law allows for differentiating rates. We have commissioned analyses in this regard and are in the process of receiving them. We assume that the rates will be made more realistic as a result. Some households may not even notice these changes in rates. Everything depends on the distribution of system costs, which we will only learn about.” https://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/opinie/artykuly/587505,michal-olszewski-wiceprezydent-warszawa-smieci-wywiad.html

-- DOUBLE DEFEAT FOR WARSAW'S PO, HIGHER BONUSES REMAIN. WILL THERE BE A STORMING OF OFFICES? - Michał Wojtczuk in Gazeta Stołeczna: “If this happens, it will be a measure of Warsaw Platforma's defeat: not only will it gain the label of a party of electoral swindlers, but it will also fail to defend the municipal budget, because the hastily passed resolution will be quashed by the voivode.” http://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,24289071,podwojna-kleska-warszawskiej-po-wyzsze-bonifikaty-zostaja.html

-- SŁAWOMIR SIERAKOWSKI ON THE SITUATION FOLLOWING PUBLICATIONS ABOUT SOLORZ - NOW IT WILL BE DECIDED WHETHER WE WILL HAVE BUDAPEST IN WARSAW: “Poland, which we have perhaps boasted about too rarely, was and still is the least corrupt country in the Visegrad Group. In Slovakia, a journalist and his girlfriend were recently murdered for revealing the ruling party's ties to the Italian mafia. In the Czech Republic, the prime minister is an oligarch who owns a significant portion of the media and has a record of regular fraud and misappropriation of public funds. In Hungary, a group called Fidesz rules. Extensive volumes have been written about what they own and how they acquired it. In this regard, Poland was closer to Germany than to the rest of its neighbors. If PiS promised Budapest in Warsaw, it meant not only gaining absolute power but also creating state capitalism subservient to the ruling party. PiS has not yet had its own oligarchs through whom it could take over, destroy, or at least subordinate media. Only now will it be decided whether we will have Budapest in Warsaw.” https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/sierakowski-wyborcza-solorza-sie-nie-przestraszyla-ale-inni-moga-opinia/q6ml3n3.amp?__twitter_impression=true

-- POLITICIANS HAVE FUELLED RACISTS - Wojciech Karpieszuk in GW: “It is already difficult to count all the racist attacks in Warsaw in the last two years. It was PiS, by scaring Poles with Muslim refugees, bacteria, and Sharia zones, that emboldened the bandits. Today, instead of seriously addressing the problem of racist violence, PiS politicians mock those who try to combat it.” http://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,24288127,rasizm-na-ulicy-tak-wyglada-bezpieczna-polska-wedlug-pis.html

-- ŁUKASZ PAWŁOWSKI in Kultura Liberalna on the consequences for Poland of the Eurozone budget: “The establishment of a separate budget for the Eurozone increases and further formalizes the difference between first- and second-speed Europe. No one can force non-Eurozone countries to adopt the common currency within a specified time, but it is possible to make the costs of not adopting it significantly increase. And Poland, which after the departure of Great Britain is the only large EU country outside the Eurozone, will not be able to do much about it. In this context, the slogan from the ruling party's recent convention, which earnestly assures voters that Poland not only does not intend to leave the Union but remains the 'heart of Europe,' sounds comical. We are not the heart of Europe, nor are we its brain, eyes, or ears. These are all organs essential or very useful for the functioning of an organism. Poland, meanwhile, is becoming something in the European Union that is called a 'vestigial organ' in biology, which loses its significance in the course of evolution.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2018/12/18/budzet-strefa-euro-polska-unia-europejska/

-- ROMAN KUŹNIAR on the sins of foreign policy - writes in GW: “The balance of the last three years in foreign policy is deeply disheartening. Much has been done to destroy or defame Poland's achievements. The country has been ridiculed in Europe, and its influence has been radically limited.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,24287644,jak-polska-wstala-z-kolan-czyli-8-grzechow-glownych-polityki.html -- 18 YEARS AGO Bronisław Geremek became the chairman of Freedom Union, which paved the way for the creation of Civic Platform.

-- BIRTHDAYS: Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Jerzy Baczyński, Jacek Kozłowski, Magdalena Szefernaker.