-- SZEFERNAKER ON THE GOVERNMENT'S YOUTHFUL REBOOT AND LADY GAGA IN THE ECR CAMPAIGN, PRAISE FOR KOSINIAK - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2019/06/01/ -- FROM THE POLISH PERSPECTIVE, PIS IS THE FIRST GROUP TO FULFILL ITS PROMISES - KAROLINA WIGURA IN CONVERSATION WITH PIOTR WITWICKI IN RZ: “Poles lack trust in the state. From their perspective, PiS is the first grouping in Poland to fulfill its promises. The world has changed beyond recognition in the last two decades. This evokes an unpleasant feeling of being lost. PiS has at least brought money. Its politicians knew how to behave during the floods. Regardless of any slip-ups, nearly half of voting Poles receive various gestures from this party with trust.” -- WIGURA ON SADNESS IN POLITICS, REFERENCING LORENZETTI'S FRESCO IN SIENA: “I am merely pointing out that in the philosophy of politics, sadness is considered an exceptionally dangerous emotion. To understand human beings in the world, we should not limit ourselves to Polish affairs, to the constant here and now. For example, Lorenzetti's famous fresco ‘Allegory of Good and Bad Government’ in Siena, considered a pictorial treatise on politics, depicts sadness as the feeling of a tyrant, contradictory to the idea of a republic. (...) Please note: as long as Jarosław Kaczyński built his political legitimacy on sadness after 2010, he lost. At some point, he understood that a slightly different emotion is credible in our society: a feeling of discomfort, chaos, and loss of control over reality. In 2015, PiS gained power with a palette of new – incidentally, left-wing – slogans.” -- SOME ROSE HIGH, OTHERS WERE LEFT BEHIND - WIGURA ON SOCIAL SENTIMENT: “PiS picked up on emotions that were already present, not only in Poland. They exist in all European societies. Part of society sees the last 30 years as follows: some have risen significantly, while others have been left behind. People have stopped seeing each other. This causes concern for practically everyone. In Poland, however, it means settling the score with the post-communist transformation, with the political leaders of the last thirty years, and with the entire Third Republic.” -- IT'S WORTH MAINTAINING HUMILITY TOWARDS PEOPLE WHO VOTE DIFFERENTLY - WIGURA CONTINUES TO WITWICKI: “It is worth maintaining humility towards the feelings of people who support a different party than us. Who like Jarosław Kaczyński and consider him a kind old man who cares about Poland. Calling them primitive shows no humility, no attempt to understand and convince them of your own argument, only immediate rejection.” https://www.rp.pl/Rozmowy-Witwickiego/305309892-Karolina-Wigura-Trzeba-przestac-obrazac-wyborcow-PiS.html?cid -- PIOTR ZAREMBA ON THE OPPOSITION'S SITUATION AND ARŁUKOWICZ'S GROWING AMBITIONS - writes in RZ: “It's possible that there isn't enough time to undermine Grzegorz Schetyna's leadership, so the opposition will be led into the next election by someone who, just smiling, promised victory, but didn't win. Leaving him in this role is like a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. In this sense, the conviction expressed by Adam Bielan that the European elections will decide the outcome of the parliamentary elections scheduled for the autumn seems to be confirmed. Former Health Minister Bartosz Arłukowicz, strengthened by his European mandate, is reportedly preparing for a future rivalry with Schetyna, likely after the Sejm and Senate elections. Few people remain on this side with a relatively clean slate and at least minimal charisma, especially since even Tusk himself will now be remembered as a co-creator of defeat. This doesn't change the fact that the opposition's problems are far more structural than personal. Even Robert Biedroń's Spring's 'fronde' is of lesser importance here.” -- THE RESHUFFLE IS TECHNICAL, IT WON'T CHANGE ANYTHING - ZAREMBA CONTINUES: “The government reshuffle will be technical in nature; it will neither weaken nor strengthen any of the leading politicians. The changes will only occur in the autumn, after the elections. Then we will learn who will truly gain in the overall balance: Morawiecki or Ziobro. If this campaign were lost, the Prime Minister might have paid the price already, although it would be difficult to replace him.” -- KACZYŃSKI COULD FINALLY BECOME PRIME MINISTER - ZAREMBA CONTINUES: “It is possible that this kind of 'un-charming' of the leader himself will result in some changes in the management system of both the party and the state, though after the elections. Kaczyński could probably finally become Prime Minister himself. If age and health do not become obstacles.” https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/305309897-13-wnioskow-z-eurowyborow.html -- IN THE Jagiellonian Club PODCAST, KRZYSZTOF MAZUR ON THE SZYDŁO PHENOMENON: "Beata Szydło was the queen of Polish fences. Banners with her image hung on many private property fences. And this is remarkable because Poles are generally known for not liking to publicly display their political views. Yet here – a mainstream politician doesn't need to use large-format, paid advertising spaces. Perhaps people are voluntarily giving up their property? We spoke to some homeowners in front of whose houses this banner hung and asked: Why Beata Szydło? Our interviewees pointed to two issues. Firstly, the former prime minister is a politician who is close to the people. (...) Perhaps she doesn't have the charisma of Jarosław Kaczyński, nor the business flair of Morawiecki, but most people perceive her as an ordinary, relatable person who represents thousands of Polish mothers and grandmothers. (...) Secondly, they emphasized that she is a tough politician, fighting for Polish interests in Brussels. This is striking because Szydło is a symbol of one of the failures – the infamous 27:1 vote, where only Poland opposed Donald Tusk's re-election. However, voters remembered it completely differently,” states Mazur.” https://klubjagiellonski.pl/2019/05/31/mazur-beata-szydlo-krolowa-polskich-plotow-video/ -- ARE YOU LIVING BETTER THAN 4 YEARS AGO - LESZEK JAŻDŻEWSKI IN CONVERSATION WITH ANITA CZUPRYN: “Politics is about playing on a field where you can win. Kaczyński opted for a campaign titled: 'Were your lives better under the PO government, or are they better under the PiS government? Do you want to maintain what we've been doing for the last almost four years?' He set this tone for the campaign. The opposition couldn't find an answer to this. My role is not to win elections for any party; I am not a politician. However, I have stated quite clearly what is important today in the worldview aspect. It's not just about the Church. It's about liberalization of customs, women's rights, the entire package, let's call it, of modernization.” -- THEY LEARNED NOTHING FROM KOMOROWSKI'S DEFEAT - JAŻDŻEWSKI CONTINUES: “Meanwhile, we are completely unprepared for the challenges of modernity: changing geopolitics, the ecological crisis, and digital oligopolies from Silicon Valley. Opposition politicians, who were sitting in the room and to whom I was addressing myself – believe that a simple anti-PiS stance can mobilize voters. It's not that this strategy only brought defeat in these elections. They learned nothing from Bronisław Komorowski's defeat in 2015. It seems they simply don't want to, they think victory is owed to them. Without mobilizing their own electorate, including the electorate that expects liberalization, the 30-40-year-old generation, the European Coalition is unable to win elections.” -- LIS REPEATS THE SAME BANALITIES - JAŻDŻEWSKI CONTINUES: “Tomasz Lis has been repeating the same banalities for a good decade. I'll overlook the fact that he produced embarrassing covers for 'Newsweek,' which rather compromised the cause he supposedly wanted to defend. I'll overlook the fact that after the Sekielski brothers' film, it suddenly turned out that when I spoke about the Church, it was an attack on the faithful, but when the so-called mainstream speaks about the Church, it's an attack on pedophilia.” -- ZDANOWSKA FOR PRIME MINISTER - JAŻDŻEWSKI CONTINUES: “If PO had put forward popular local government officials with achievements: announced that Hanna Zdanowska or Jacek Jaśkowiak were their candidates for prime minister, or for other important positions, they might have had a chance to put up a fair fight against PiS in the autumn. Because these people have concrete achievements behind them. But this doesn't seem likely.” https://polskatimes.pl/leszek-jazdzewski-koalicja-europejska-powinna-sie-teraz-rozwiazac/ar/c1-14172205 -- MARCIN FIJOŁEK ON THE EUROPEAN COALITION BELIEVING IN FAKE POLLS: “The starting situation for Schetyna and his team was outlined by the Institute for Public Affairs Research (headed by Łukasz Pawłowski). For the record: this is the center that predicted a victory (and a significant one) for the European Coalition almost until the very end. There are two possibilities. Either the gentlemen and ladies from IBSP (and consequently – those from Platform) believed in their own wishful thinking, or they used tools and instruments that distorted reality. Another thing is that even the worst polls and surveys can be verified by daily grassroots work, regular contact with voters, and a sense of intuition, which the leaders of the European Coalition clearly lacked. It's hard to be surprised that in a reality where the initial assumptions were miscalculated, and the campaign staff and coordinators couldn't correct the course or make up for the mistake with hard work, the European Coalition lost this political match on their home turf. It therefore seems that for even a minimal success for Grzegorz Schetyna and his team in the autumn, a deep reset is necessary: and at every level. Mental, organizational, personal. There simply isn't time for this, and the level of reflection – see Schetyna's statements about Łukacijewska and Cisna, 'Polityka's' covers about two Polands, etc. – does not bode well for the opposition's voters.” -- THERE IS NO WIND OF CHANGE - FIJOŁEK'S CONCLUSION: “Which, by the way, was already evident earlier – the wind of change is simply not blowing in Poland, and even if commissioned forecasts show a storm and tornado, it will not change the reality outside the window.” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/449000-magicy-od-sondazy-i-lukacijewska-nie-ma-czasu-na-reset-w-ke -- LUDWIK DORN - SINCE VICTORY IS LESS LIKELY, EVERYONE WILL LOOK OUT FOR THEMSELVES - writes in GW: “The goal of taking power away from PiS has become somewhat less realistic, so now each of the opposition players will be scheming for what is most beneficial from the perspective of their party's interests. -- KACZYŃSKI AS A STRATEGIST OF VICTORY FOLLOWED WEBER'S OBSERVATION - DORN CONTINUES IN GW: “Jarosław Kaczyński – because he was the strategist here – followed the apt observation of the classic sociologist Max Weber that it is 'not ideas, but material interests and interests focused on ideals/values, that govern people's actions.' Social transfers were made within the framework of a vision of a national community threatened by the outside world, including the European Union. Jews supported by Americans want to take our property; the left-liberal elites ruling the EU want to sexualize our children; the EU's migration policy threatens the creation of sharia zones in Poland; those in Brussels want to take our zloty and introduce the euro, which will lead to price increases; powerful forces want to destroy the Church to destroy the Polish nation that hinders them. Finally, the anti-PiS opposition cooperates with the sinister outside world and, if it comes to power, will take back from Poles what PiS has given them.” -- BIEDROŃ WILL STILL GET INTO THE SEJM - DORN CONTINUES: “Let's start with Spring. Although 6.1% is a result well below expectations, after almost certainly absorbing Left Together, such a formation will have a million determined and ideologically motivated voters, which means it will enter the Sejm even with a turnout exceeding 60%. That is why Robert Biedroń, the day after the election, responded negatively to the overtures from Civic Platform politicians about expanding the coalition. He doesn't need any coalition for anything, and furthermore, the activists and voters of Spring are characterized in politics by action – to refer to Max Weber's typology – value-rational action: they are not interested in predictable consequences, but only in the significance of the cause they represent.” -- DORN ON PSL'S RISK OF BECOMING A SATELLITE PARTY: “Therefore, his only chance to save his own head is for him to set tough conditions for SLD and PSL regarding the principles of forming electoral lists, so that out of the projected approximately 200 seats for coalition partners, no more than 45-50 fall to them – say 25 for SLD, and 20 for PSL. These are acceptable conditions for SLD, which is currently not in the Sejm, but it's worse for PSL, for which it would mean a permanent degradation to the role of a small-town/rural appendage of PO with the prospect of being consumed before the 2023 elections. If PSL does not agree to such conditions, then Grzegorz Schetyna's entire political game will consist of pushing them out of the coalition in such a way that the political odium for breaking unity falls on the PSL.” http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,24849771,opozycja-do-parlamentu-razem-czy-osobno-co-sie-ktorej-partii.html -- MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI ON KALI'S ETHICS IN A CONVERSATION ABOUT CLAIMS: “By saying that we will not fulfill any 'Jewish claims,' those governing Poland today are saying that the state did indeed take or seize property, but it does not intend to return it or even provide compensation for it. If Poland appeals to ethics when demanding compensation from Germany, it appears to be Kali's ethics.” https://www.rp.pl/Szalenstwa-tego-swiata/305309887-Michal-Szuldrzynski-Wezmiemy-od-Niemcow-to-i-oddajmy-Zydom.html -- MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI ON ANNIVERSARIES IN POLAND DIVIDING - writes in RZ: “Therefore, there is no indication that the abundance of anniversaries will become an occasion for national unification or reconciliation. Quite the opposite – it will further deepen conflicts. Anniversaries are not celebrated in today's Poland to unite, but to divide. The goal of their celebration is to find justification for one's own political group, not to build a national community. This approach is an inevitable consequence of deep polarization, and at the same time, it further increases it.” https://www.rp.pl/Plus-Minus/305309888-Rocznice-ktore-maja-dzielic.html -- ANTONI DUDEK ON THE ROUND TABLE AND ITS ASSESSMENT: “Other critics of the Round Table do not usually reach as far as Targalski, but their common trait is the conviction that a contract was made at that time regarding the division of power and mutual security guarantees between the leadership of the PZPR and Solidarity. The fact that such a thing cannot be found in the detailed notes from the Magdalenka talks, prepared independently by Major Krzysztof Dubiński and Father Alojzy Orszulik, or in other documents, is of course of no significance to them. Fortunately, alongside these extreme visions, we also encounter more balanced narratives, although they are of course closer to the white than the black legend of 1989. One can hope that in the future, disputes about 1989 will increasingly take the form of a scientific historical debate and less so of political-personal brawls.” https://www.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/prazrodlo-wszelkiego-zla-czy-polityczny-cud-biala-i-czarna-legenda-roku-89,218,3745 -- 23 YEARS AGO, Onet.pl was launched. -- 16 YEARS AGO, Donald Tusk became the chairman of Civic Platform. -- BIRTHDAYS: Anita Czupryn, Kamila Baranowska, Grzegorz Pietruczuk, Ewa Wolak, Tosia Kamińska, Wiesław Szczepański, SUNDAY: Sławomir Jastrzębowski, Tomasz Żółciak.