-- POLITICAL SATURDAY ON 300POLITYCE: SCHETYNA ASKS KACZYŃSKI 5 QUESTIONS, KOSINIAK WANTS A MEETING BETWEEN THE PRIME MINISTER AND TEACHERS, KACZYŃSKI SAYS NO TO EURO - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2019/04/13/

-- BREAK WITH PLASTIC - THE MOST ACTIVE TEAM IN THE SEJM - Dominika Długosz: “The Minister of Environment announces that the 'plastic directive' will be ready for implementation in the second half of the year. It prohibits the sale of certain single-use plastics. Meanwhile, a 'Break with Plastic' team has been formed in the Sejm, where MPs are currently learning how to get rid of plastic themselves. The team has only been active for 3 months, but it appears to be one of the most dynamic in the Sejm. It meets every parliamentary week and plans initiatives to convince others that too much plastic is unhealthy. The only problem is that it only includes MPs from Civic Platform. Although, reportedly, one PiS MP is considering joining the war against single-use items.”

https://www.newsweek.pl/polska/polityka/sejmowe-zrywanie-z-plastikiem/6l8k8pd

-- THE MARSHAL SAYS HE WORKS FOR AN IDEA, BUT EARNS 20 THOUSAND A MONTH - Fakt's front page.

-- KARCZEWSKI EARNS 20 THOUSAND, WHILE A TEACHER EARNS 2875 - continues Fakt.

-- CLEANERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE ELEVATOR WITH SENATORS - GW on the intervention by Zawisza and Lewica Razem: “It's not just contracts and earnings that raise doubts. The hired women reportedly hear vulgar language from their supervisor and are also mistreated by the senators themselves, including being forbidden to use the elevator with senators.”

http://wyborcza.pl/7,155287,24644283,senat-rp-osoby-sprzatajace-na-outsourcingu-i-umowach-smieciowych.html

-- BIERECKI IS CLEANING UP POLAND - Dziennik Wschodni's front page.

-- DIRECTOR OF THE CULTURE DEPARTMENT IS LEAVING, THE CITY HALL IS CUTTING THE BUDGETS OF WARSAW THEATERS - Stołeczna (Michał Wojtczuk): “Some friction in his cooperation with Trzaskowski's team was noticeable a few weeks ago. In January, during the drafting of the city budget for 2019, the budgets of many theaters were cut. – The city budget is difficult this year. I made the decision not to transfer additional funds to institutions in the January session – explained Aldona Machnowska-Góra, coordinator for culture and a close associate of Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, to 'Stołeczna'.”

http://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,24647067,odchodzi-dyrektor-miejskiego-biura-kultury-konflikt-z-koordynatorka.html

-- PIS'S PLAN IS FALLING APART - PAWEŁ WROŃSKI in GW: “It seems that the teachers' strike has completely disrupted PiS's election campaign for the European Parliament and for the autumn elections to the Sejm and Senate.”

-- WROŃSKI ON HOW MORAWIECKI WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TUSK PLUS: “Back in March, the concept for PiS's six-month election campaign was completely different. Prime Minister Morawiecki wanted to present himself as an excellent manager who had balanced the budget, developed and modernized Poland, turning it into a second Bavaria. Politicians from the ruling camp hinted to journalists that their electorate was tired of wars and expected stability, and could not be won over by further primitive social transfers like 500 plus. In short: Morawiecki was to be Tusk plus, offering certainty and peace.”

http://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,24645127,morawiecki-mial-grac-role-tuska-plus-nauczyciele-pokrzyzowali.html

-- AGNIESZKA BURZYŃSKA WRITES THAT TUSK DOESN'T WANT SCHETYNA TO BE PRIME MINISTER AT ALL: “Schetyna, however, cannot and will not wait. He knows that if he loses in the autumn, he will be forced to leave in disgrace. And he dreams of the prime minister's seat. Tusk, among his colleagues, always commented on these ambitions in the same way: 'We cannot allow Grzesiek to become head of government.'”

https://www.fakt.pl/wydarzenia/polityka/co-naprawde-laczy-grzegorza-schetyne-i-donalda-tuska/31jcx20

-- JAN RULEWSKI ON REFUSAL TO HAVE PRL OFFICIALS ON THE EUROPEAN COALITION LISTS - tells Eliza Olczyk in Rzeczpospolita: “There are still people who were severely affected and persecuted in the past system, and they see that those who functioned well in the Polish People's Republic, who profited from belonging to the ruling party, still hold privileged positions in democratic Poland. Some of them have ended up on our list of so-called democratic candidates. I emphasize that I am not only referring to financial profits, but also to memory.”

-- THERE WERE NEVER ANY GESTURES FROM ZEMKE TOWARDS SOLIDARITY - RULEWSKI continues in Rzeczpospolita: “Personally, I have no complaints against him, except that when the Bydgoszcz March of 1981 broke out, as propaganda secretary of the PZPR Voivodeship Committee, he drafted disgusting resolutions condemning Solidarity and falsifying reality. At the same time, there were never any gestures from Janusz Zemke towards Solidarity. On the contrary, he organizes the defense of former SB officers. In the European Union, he mainly deals with their complaints about reduced pension benefits. I don't see him showing any reflection on the past. Some of the figures who joined the European Coalition participated in dirty activities during the PRL era. For example, they carried out journalistic purges during martial law or purged academic staff at universities. These were severe persecutions. And in free Poland, Janusz Zemke and others somehow never came up with the idea of rectifying the wrongs of the persecuted.”

https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/304119945-Jan-Rulewski-Rozstaje-sie-z-PO-Nie-bede-roznosil-ulotek-pana-Zemkego.html

-- PIS AND THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED - PIOTR ZAREMBA in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna: “But I also understand the emotions of thousands of teachers who felt they had no other option but to use nuclear weapons. It is a very risky strategy for their professional group. However, I maintain that the only party in this conflict that should be ashamed is the Polish government and the leadership of PiS. Regardless of their short-term efficiency in trying to outmaneuver the opponent. This efficiency will backfire on all of us. It is possible that in the long term, it will also harm the right-wing, even if they temporarily turn their troubles into success and win two campaigns. Because their perspective seems to be only electoral games.”

-- ZAREMBA ON EMERGING MANIPULATIONS: "A characteristic feature of this conflict is the exceptional invasion of blunt, mechanical calculations, schemes, clichés, half-truths flooding society through government TVP and the internet. I don't know what role paid trolls play here, and what role volunteers do, but they have managed to exploit human weaknesses to the maximum: a lack of inclination for independent thinking, the search for 'ready-made' explanations that explain everything, combined in this case with real emotions, such as those of parents, which I do not begrudge.”

-- ZAREMBA ON THE LONG-TERM EFFECT OF THE STRIKE: “Frederick the Great said that it was the Prussian teacher who won his wars. Well, ladies and gentlemen of the right, the Polish teacher will not win wars in a year or two, but will work so that you will not win any more battles later.”

https://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/opinie/artykuly/595610,strajk-naczycieli-protest-egzaminy-rzad-szkola.html

-- LUDWIK DORN ON THE PROBLEM OF 3.5 MILLION CHILDREN: “There are about 5.1 million children and adolescents of compulsory school age in Poland. In addition, there are preschoolers. Excluding preschoolers, children and adolescents studying in private institutions, which are not affected by the strike, and considering the estimated strike coverage of about 60-65% of public schools and kindergartens, it means families will have to arrange care for over 3.5 million children.”

-- DORN ON HOLIDAY CONVERSATIONS AMONG POLES IN THE SHADOW OF THE STRIKE: “The effect of the teachers' strike could be very painful for PiS due to its timing – and this is not only about the dates of the matura and gymnasium exams, but about the spread of political discussions over time, taking place not in the mass media and social media, but within families. This year's Easter will fall during the strike and a month before the European Parliament elections. As a former active politician of high standing, I know that before Christmas and Easter, when families meet, sit at the table and talk, including about politics, the leaderships of parties competing for power rack their brains over one thing: what can we invent so that at the holiday table they speak well of us, and badly of our competitors. And if they don't talk about us at all, at least let them talk badly about our competitors. This year, at the Easter table, people will talk about the strike and PiS. And they will talk badly.”

-- SŁAWOMIR BRONIARZ ON POSTPONING THE MATURA EXAM DATE - tells Piotr Pacewicz in Oko.press: “We are striking, we are not working. Maybe the government will come to its senses? And the matura exam date can always be postponed.”

https://oko.press/broniarz-termin-matur-mozna-zawsze-przesunac-rzad-musi-zaczac-powazne-rozmowy/

-- MARCIN FIJOŁEK ON CONNECTING THE ARCHIPELAGOES OF A WELL-FUNCTIONING STATE: “I would disagree only that it's a pseudo-state – it's rather a state of islands of efficiency; places where schools operate (and excellently so), teachers are ambitious and infect students with passion, where stagnation at universities is overcome (point by point), MPs (a few) read bills, deputy ministers prepare them with detailed scope and insight, and finally – where all this works with the support, not alongside the state's action. This is also a problem not only for central institutions but also for the Church, media, services, civil society, non-governmental organizations, and local governments. All these realities (to a greater or lesser extent) operate on inertia and the commitment of islands, archipelagos, which function as they should. However, this is not just a problem for the prime minister, the party leader, the president, or the ministers, whoever holds these offices. Perhaps it is high time to look in our own mirrors and beat our own chests – to finally try to connect these archipelagos.”

https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/442345-to-nie-panstwo-na-niby-raczej-archipelag-wysepek-sprawnosci

-- SŁAWOMIR SIERAKOWSKI QUOTES A LESSER-KNOWN YOUGOV POLL: “It turns out that the least motivated are Wiosna voters, slightly more are PiS voters, and decidedly the most motivated are Civic Platform voters. Wiosna has the most dissatisfied electorate, while PiS has the most satisfied. The most unsatisfied are those who do not know who they will vote for (and probably not for that reason). Robert Biedroń's voters, when asked about their emotions, most often mention fear and stress. There is the most optimism among supporters of PiS and PO. Wiosna and the 'duopoly' also differ significantly when asked if they feel appreciated and confident, and if they have control over their lives and consider themselves part of a group. Wiosna supporters also rate their quality of life lower. They are more worried about their children's future.”

https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/sierakowski-wyborcy-pis-po-i-wiosny-inni-niz-myslelismy-opinia/mvvhbk1

-- TWO CANDIDATES IN THE POLIN MUSEUM COMPETITION - Gazeta Stołeczna: “Only two people entered the competition to select a candidate for the director of the Polin Museum. One of them is the current head of the institution, Prof. Dariusz Stola. His competitor is Monika Krawczyk, chairwoman of the Association of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland.”

http://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,24649629,dwie-osoby-powalcza-o-stanowisko-dyrektora-muzeum-polin.html

-- THE JAGIELLONIAN CLUB APPEALS FOR A VETO ON THE 13TH PENSION: “The Jagiellonian Club appeals to President Duda to send the law on the 'thirteenth pension' to the Constitutional Tribunal due to legal defects. If the President uses the constitutionally stipulated period to sign, most pensioners will not see a single zloty of the promised 11 billion. The Constitutional Tribunal has previously found unconstitutional provisions analogous to those found in the key pillar of 'PiS's Five-Point Plan.' The government had two legal pathways to avoid constitutional problems. For incomprehensible reasons, it did not choose to use them. Law and Justice procedurally processed the law on the 'thirteenth pension for pensioners' so hastily that they failed to notice that even if President Andrzej Duda signs the law, pensioners might not see a single zloty of the 11 billion zlotys promised by Jarosław Kaczyński. The constitution gives the head of state 21 days to decide what to do with the law.”

https://klubjagiellonski.pl/2019/04/12/ustawa-o-trzynastce-dla-emerytow-moze-byc-niezgodna-z-konstytucja-apelujemy-do-prezydenta-dudy/

-- BIRTHDAYS: Róża Thun turns 65, Robert Biedroń, Lech Gardocki, Jarosław Gugała, Jacek Świderski, Piotr Stolecki, Maciej Knapik, Grzegorz Bielowicki, Andrzej Ryszka, Wojciech Solarz, Ewa Bugała, SUNDAY: Andrzej Gwiazda, Tomasz Arabski, Robert Górski, Arkadiusz Czartoryski, Mariusz Witczak, Ewa Tomaszewska, Antoni Tokarczuk, Krystyna Pawłowicz, Stanisław Starnawski.