-- 19 YEARS AGO Aleksander Kwaśniewski, running for re-election, won the presidential election in the first round.

-- WAŁĘSA WITHDREW SUPPORT FROM CIVIC COALITION AND SUPPORTED PSL:
https://300polityka.pl/live/2019/10/08/

-- PSL ISN'T ENTIRELY HAPPY WITH THIS SUPPORT: “It’s hard to comment on the former president’s recent words. Let him spend his retirement peacefully, engage in lectures, and not meddle in politics, because in my opinion – he’s causing more confusion than good,” Marek Sawicki told Wprost.pl. When asked if Lech Wałęsa’s words would affect the Polish People’s Party’s election results, the politician replied briefly: “I don’t think so.”
https://www.wprost.pl/tylko-u-nas/10258525/walesa-zapowiedzial-ze-chce-poprzec-psl-sawicki-robi-wiecej-zamieszania-niz-dobrego.html

-- PIS WON THE INTERNET ONCE AGAIN - ZOSIA WANAT IN POLITICO EUROPE: “A week before the elections, which will take place next Sunday, the Polish opposition, according to critics, is not keeping up with the ruling party’s online campaign. Opposition parties – including the largest of them, Civic Platform – have apparently learned little from their defeat in 2015, when a well-prepared online campaign helped PiS gain power. ‘PiS is currently, unfortunately, the only modern political party in Poland,’ a person closely associated with the opposition told POLITICO.

-- WANAT ON SZEFERNAKER’S ROLE: “PiS’s online dynamic is largely attributed to Paweł Szefernaker, currently the Deputy Minister of the Interior, who in 2015 – still before he turned thirty – was put in charge of the party’s online activities. Today, the 32-year-old Szefernaker is convinced that PiS still has a classic technical advantage: it is the participant in the game who made the first move. ‘In 2015, politicians focused mainly on traditional forms of contact with voters, such as campaign rallies or billboards,’ he says. ‘They underestimated the role the internet could play in the campaign.’
https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/politico/pis-po-raz-kolejny-wygral-przed-wyborami-internet-analiza/b6fq81m

-- WAŁĘSA IS SLAUGHTERING THE OPPOSITION - MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI IN RZ: “Instead of slaughtering PiS, Wałęsa is slaughtering the opposition. By brutally attacking Morawiecki the day after the funeral, he broke a cultural taboo. And by digging in and expanding his position on social media, he continues to harm Civic Coalition. Because although he is not formally associated with them, the fact that he was invited as an honorary guest to the Coalition’s convention means that all his further statements on this matter will be attributed to the opposition. This will only deepen the crisis.
https://www.rp.pl/Analizy/191009380-Szuldrzynski-Walesa-zamiast-dorzyna-PiS-dorzyna-opozycje.html

-- PIS GETS A C+ - JACEK GĄDEK ON THE KANTAR SURVEY: “In the Kantar poll, we asked Poles to rate the quality of the Law and Justice government on a school scale (1-6). The average rating is exactly 3.22, which is a C+. Men (rating 3.4) evaluate it higher than women (3.1). This reflects the general principle that men more often support PiS, and women are more skeptical of the right-wing.

-- THIRTY-SOMETHINGS RATE PiS THE WORST: “The evaluations of people depending on age are interesting. Respondents aged 18-24 rate the PiS government at 3.2, but their peers a few years older (aged 25-34) are the most critical of PiS: 2.8. People aged 35+ give a 3.3. People aged 45+ give a 3.4. People aged 60+ give a 3.3.”
http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25281750,sondaz-rzady-pis-na-3-teraz-wynik-pis-jest-najbardziej-nieprzewidywalny.html

-- PIS 45, CIVIC COALITION 25 - ANOTHER SURVEY FOR DGP AND INTERIA: “45.1 percent of respondents want to vote for Law and Justice (an increase of 0.6), and 24.6 percent for Civic Coalition (an increase of 0.7). The following also crossed the election threshold: The Left – 12.6 percent (a decrease of 1.5) and Polish Coalition (i.e., Kukiz15 with PSL) – 5.6 percent (a decrease of 0.4).”
https://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/polityka/artykuly/609652,pis-ko-polityka-wybory-parlamentarne-sondaz-lewica-kukiz-polityka.html

-- WHY ARE WE SURPRISED THAT SINGLE MOTHERS AND PENSIONERS VOTE ACCORDING TO THEIR ECONOMIC INTEREST - KRZYSZTOF PACEWICZ IN GW: “Before we move on to the usual narrative about ‘sell-out 500+,’ let’s take a moment to reflect. Why are we surprised that people with incomes below 1,500 PLN – pensioners, single mothers – vote according to their own economic interests? That is healthy. What is unhealthy is the way PiS uses its social program to divide Poles into a better and worse sort.”

-- PACEWICZ ON THE OPPOSITION'S ASSURANCES OF MAINTAINING PiS PROGRAMS: “Although Civic Coalition, The Left, and PSL have declared that ‘nothing given will be taken away,’ one can doubt whether this has broken through the propaganda noise. There are still a few days of campaigning left – if the opposition is wondering how to win over some undecided voters or those leaning towards PiS, it is precisely by assuring them of the maintenance of PiS’s social programs.”
http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,25282996,pis-jest-aferoodporny-bo-polacy-maja-afery-gdzies-jak-wynika.html

-- PLATFORM IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IT PUBLICLY CLAIMS, BASED ON RECORDINGS - JACEK KARNOWSKI: “Platforma, based on Neumann’s recordings, is the exact opposite of what it wants to be perceived as. It is not professional – it selects staff based on cronyism. It is not locally-minded – the residents’ will matters little to it. It is not democratic – everything is decided from the top. It is not European, even in terms of basic manners – Neumann swears not like a farmhand, but like the worst stable boy. Finally, it is not civic, as Neumann prefers ‘100 Spartans’ (it should be: Spartiates) to a thousand engaged citizens.

-- GLORY TO US AND OUR COLLEAGUES AND NOTHING MORE - KARNOWSKI FURTHER ON PO: “So, Platform is not what it wants to be perceived as. But that’s not the worst part: the worst part is that by not delivering what it promises, it delivers nothing else either. Because theoretically, even a brutal, tough political structure could offer something important, a project, an idea, a thought. Meanwhile, there is nothing there. There is only the old principle of post-communists from the Rywin affair: glory to us and our colleagues. Nothing more.”
https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/467207-po-z-tasm-neumanna-jest-odwrotnoscia-tego-co-mowi-wyborcom

-- STANISŁAW GAWŁOWSKI ON BEING THE ONLY PERSON WHO TOOK SOMETHING AWAY FROM FATHER RYDZYK – in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza Szczecin: “Later, in private, we talked about the fact that I am the only person in Poland who took something away from Father Rydzyk, which put me at odds with PiS. I am of course referring to PLN 27 million for the Toruń geothermals, which was granted under previous PiS governments. Under the PO-PSL government, as the chairman of the supervisory board of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, I requested documents, and it turned out that there were no grounds for granting such a subsidy. Unfortunately, during the current PiS government, Rydzyk received this money as a result of a court settlement. Not 27, but 26 million. Of course, a settlement reached with the PiS government.”
https://szczecin.wyborcza.pl/szczecin/7,34939,25282706,wybory-parlamentarne-2019-gawlowski-nie-mam-sobie-nic-do-zarzucenia.html

-- NOWACKA: AS LONG AS PiS EXISTS, THE DIVISION INTO LEFT AND RIGHT IS NOT VALID - she says in an interview with Paulina Siegień in Krytyka: “As I said, the divisions are proceeding completely differently today. The division into left and right, or into conservatives and liberals, has ceased to be valid in the context of how PiS governs. Of course, within this coalition, we will argue with each other because there are differences between us. I see the fewest differences, perhaps, between Inicjatywa Polska and the Greens, but they emphasize different things, and different matters are key for them. But what unites us all in Civic Coalition is our way of thinking about the state and the legal order. I believe that if PiS is not removed from power now, there will be nothing left to salvage in social terms. The damage they cause through their propaganda on public television is so deep, they build such strong hatred and aggression, that rebuilding a healthy society after many years in such a state will be very difficult. I joined Civic Coalition over a year ago, before the local government elections, and I knew perfectly well that we differed. I knew, for example, that I would have to clash with Kazimierz Plocke, who is running in the same constituency from second place, over women’s rights, or that I would have to clash with MPs from Nowoczesna over the understanding of the state’s role in the economy. I am prepared for this. But the point is to even have the conditions to clash.”

-- NOWACKA ON PiS'S NEW MIDDLE CLASS: “Not a revolution, but corruption. Because it’s not the previously oppressed who are coming to power, but those who were doing quite well. PiS doesn’t hide that they are building their own middle class, nationalist or even far-right nationalist, obedient, thinking solely in terms of their own egoisms. If you go to places where the economy is dominated by state-owned companies, for example, Głogów, Lubin and the surrounding areas, where KGHM and its related companies reign, you can see it immediately. Many people there are employed precisely in such companies. When the carousel of positions begins and PiS people get in, and the rest are swept out, then on the one hand, some are bought with the chance of promotion, and the others are intimidated by being pushed to the margins.”

-- NOWACKA ON CONSERVATIVES IN CIVIC PLATFORM: “PiS has left us a church without God. Conservative politicians in Civic Coalition are beginning to realize that the terms ‘church-related’ and ‘Catholic’ are two different things today. Radosław Sikorski, a conservative politician, once told me in conversation that for many years he lived under the impression that he and the church, shoulder to shoulder, fought against communism for democracy. But it turned out that it was only against communism.”
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/nowacka-na-tle-pis-podzial-na-lewice-i-prawice-jnie-obowiazuje-wywiad/

-- JAKUB BODZIONY ON CLIMATE NATIONALISTS - he writes in Kultura Liberalna: “To achieve this, there can be no place for climate deniers in the Polish parliament. Therefore, the best civic action is to go to the polls and cast a vote for a candidate for whom the fight against climate change is not just a superficial gesture.”
https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2019/10/08/klimat-kryzys-wybory-2019/

-- TOMASZ SAWCZUK IN KL ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PSL AND KONFEDERACJA'S RESULTS: “PiS’s chance for a majority in the Sejm will likely depend more on the results of PSL and Konfederacja, rather than Civic Coalition and The Left. If both smaller committees cross the election threshold, it will be harder for PiS to secure a majority. If the ruling party lacks the seats to govern alone – the time for building difficult coalitions will begin.”
https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2019/10/08/wybory-2019-demokraci-nie-powinni-glosowac-na-pis/

-- BIRTHDAYS: Czesław Siekierski, Zbigniew Siemiątkowski.