-- Minister of Culture of Sweden Amanda Lind and Olga Tokarczuk. https://twitter.com/tokarczuk_olga/status/1204869053162180608?s=21 -- WITEK ON LACK OF PLAN B AND APPOINTMENT OF PKW -- 300LIVE : https://300polityka.pl/live/2019/12/12/ -- NO ONE LOVES BUSINESS TODAY - MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI IN RZ: “The Left is becoming increasingly anti-market, while liberals, by focusing on minority issues, are adopting the Left's agenda, and right-wing parties are becoming increasingly populist. (...) And actually, no one wants to defend business anymore, no one wants to speak up for entrepreneurs, for those who invest, risking their own capital. Today, liberals are much closer to the Left, increasingly adopting its agenda, and the Right is becoming more and more social and populist. And we are increasingly forgetting that we measure the power of nations by the strength of their economies, which are driven by entrepreneurs, not social transfers.” https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/312119919-Szuldrzynski-Nikt-dzis-nie-kocha-biznesu.html -- PRESS ON PACZUSKA'S LIMITED COMPETENCIES AND KURSKI'S STRENGTHENED ROLE IN TVP MANAGEMENT: “Marzena Paczuska is losing oversight of the TVP Technology Centre to the President of Polish Television Jacek Kurski and the Television Theatre Creation Agency to another board member – Mateusz Matyszkowicz. Paczuska will be responsible for the operation of TVP Polonia and Biełsat TV channels and the Internet Channels and Services Centre – reports the Press.pl portal.” http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25504793,marzena-paczuska-z-mniejsza-wladza-w-zarzadzie-tvp-traci-nadzor.html -- SEXOLOG ANDRZEJ DEPKO IN CONVERSATION WITH GRZEGORZ SROCZYŃSKI ON GAZETA.PL: “No one tells children that it's nonsense. Parents – no, because they are ashamed to talk to their children about pornography. And school – even more so. We are raising a generation of cripples raised on hardcore. For young people, pornography is a poison that floods their young souls.” -- DEPKO ON POLITICIANS' UNIFIED STANCE ON PORNOGRAPHY: “The Left, the Right, the liberals – on this issue, everyone should say two things to themselves. Firstly, that children watch pornography. Secondly, that we need to talk to them about it, debunk and ridicule the bullshit they see there. Perhaps this could be agreed upon beyond political views.” -- DEPKO ON RESTRICTING ACCESS TO PORNOGRAPHY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY: “Absolutely. And I would be the first to write a request to the European Commission to immediately order the installation of this technology in every electronic device with a screen. Because with all my positivist attitude towards social issues, which dictates that it is better to educate than to prohibit, I see every day how pornography destroys children. I think it's like with alcohol; you need proof of age to buy it. And it should be the same with pornography. If someone is an adult, reasonably formed – go ahead. From the age of 18, they will still have on average 60 years to watch. And that's really enough.” -- WE HAVE AN EPIDEMIC - DEPKO FURTHER ON PORNOGRAPHY: “It always existed, you're right. But now the porn industry has caused an epidemic. Such a young man doesn't think that the primary organ he should offer a woman is his brain. Because he has been programmed since the age of 11 that only a sufficiently large organ will ensure future success. The world is not keeping up with the fact that every child has a smartphone. So, if we do not conduct proper sex education, they educate themselves on the worst possible material. I'm not even mentioning that they learn about the complete detachment of sex from emotions. Sex education in schools could be a counterbalance to pornography, which is absolutely everywhere; I showed you the simplest example on my own smartphone. If we do nothing, we will have a society growing up with serious problems in the sexual sphere.” http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114883,25492491,dr-depko-chca-wyrzucac-edukatorow-seksualnych-ze-szkol-a-na.html -- SERVICES WERE NOT TASKED BY POLITICIANS - MAREK BIERNACKI IN CONVERSATION WITH ŁUKASZ ROGOJSZA ON GAZETA.PL: “Only the most important politicians of the Law and Justice party know the background of this matter, and therefore – the full answer to this question. At first glance, it seems to me that the services were at fault. However, services need to be properly tasked, and that is the role of politicians. In this case, there was a lack of specific tasking; that is, checking the candidate for the position of Minister of Finance, and then for the position of President of NIK. Consequently, we have the Banaś affair.” -- SERVICES ARE AFRAID OF POLITICIANS - BIERNACKI FURTHER: “Yes, officers are afraid of being fired. Polish special services are too politicized. Look, every election, when a new government team comes in, there's a 'broom' in the services and they fill them with their own people. There are no saints here, because it has been like this under every authority. Under this authority, changes have been unprecedented; from the beginning, there has also been a lack of a coherent philosophy of operation for special services.” -- BANAŚ SIGNALED HE WON'T SELL HIMSELF CHEAPLY - BIERNACKI FURTHER: “The NIK audit was conducted for a long time and under the previous president. The findings indicate a number of irregularities, which the press has also written about. President Banaś did what his duties required; he has nothing to lose. He gave a clear signal that he wouldn't sell himself cheaply. Incidentally, he filed a report on irregularities in the Ministry of Justice to the prosecutor's office, which is headed by the Prosecutor General, who is also the Minister of Justice.” -- THIS IS A MAFIA DECLARATION OF WAR, A NESTING DOLL AFFAIR - BIERNACKI FURTHER: “This is a mafia declaration of war. I don't know if the son worked well or poorly, but if he worked well, by what right is he fired due to his father's political conflicts? If he worked poorly, why wasn't he fired earlier? The entire Banaś affair is a nesting doll story. This matter unfolds with every subsequent thread that is touched.” http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25498725,drugie-dno-tzw-afery-banasia-polskie-sluzby-zyja-w-strachu.html -- MONEY IS VISIBLE IN HOŁOWNIA'S CAMPAIGN - JACEK KARNOWSKI: “Because in Hołownia's campaign, which should not be underestimated, the money is visible. And it's not about renting a hall, but about a very precisely written script, behind which there is a professional hand. A tour across Poland promoting the book, many posters in various cities, and finally, training and research to which a lot has been invested. Because Hołownia doesn't say what he came up with himself, but what resonated with participants of focus groups and quantitative research. The mix is precise and quite well-chosen.” -- REGULATE THE PRE-CAMPAIGN - KARNOWSKI FURTHER: “If we don't want to go down the path of Ukraine or even the Czech Republic, we must ask candidates like Hołownia: where is the money coming from? We should ask both directly (seriously, not grotesquely) and – perhaps – through new legal solutions that will regulate this sphere. Not to block anyone's entry into politics, but so that it's known who they are and whose they are.” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/477149-holownia-kpi-z-pytania-o-pieniadze-ale-pieniadze-tam-widac -- EWA SIEDLECKA ON NON-RECOGNITION OF NEO-JUDGES: “If more such requests come from courts, the First President of the Supreme Court will have grounds to refer this legal issue for resolution by a full panel of the Supreme Court, where pre-reform judges have a decisive majority (70:37). In this way, the Supreme Court will provide all judges in Poland with a strong legal basis to not recognize rulings involving neo-judges and to refuse to sit with them on judicial panels.” https://siedlecka.blog.polityka.pl/2019/12/11/zaczelo-sie-stosowanie-wyroku-tsue-ruszy-lawina/ -- NOT ENOUGH TO GET OUT OF THE CLINCH - KONRAD SZYMAŃSKI ON ARTICLE 7 IN RESPONSE TO JĘDRZEJ BIELECKI IN RZ: “By filing further complaints against the justice system reform with the Court of Justice of the EU, the Commission has already admitted that the Article 7 procedure yields no results. However, while it was easy to initiate this procedure, no one knows how to get out of it. The Commission, in practice, no longer controls it. The European Parliament, which, as the case of Hungary shows, is prone to much more radical judgments, is closely monitoring this issue. We also have a whole mosaic of assessments of this problem by EU member states. Thanks to our efforts, there is no majority in the Council of the EU for adopting a confrontational course towards Poland, but that is not enough to get out of the clinch we are in. All this confirms our conviction that doubts regarding the justice system reform should be resolved through legal proceedings, without embarking on a political path.” -- NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE EU HAVE BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS BEEN SO DIFFICULT - SZYMAŃSKI FURTHER IN RZ: “After 18 months of negotiations, we are still essentially at square one. Never in the history of the Union have budget negotiations been so difficult, and the interests of the states so divergent. The risk of ultimate failure therefore exists. This is indeed due to the internal situation of the so-called net contributors, which significantly narrows their negotiating mandate. These are countries that want to present themselves as enthusiasts of integration, almost the conscience of a united Europe. But the truth is different: trust in the European project has completely collapsed there. Under pressure from populism, they forget that their benefits from the common market are even seven times greater than their contributions to the EU budget. Listening to them, one sometimes gets the impression that they are even disadvantaged. The lack of communication about the benefits of the common market only fuels budget populism.” https://www.rp.pl/Publicystyka/312119911-Konrad-Szymanski-Budzet-UE---tak-zle-jeszcze-nie-bylo.html -- OLGA TOKARCZUK SAVES THE WORLD - EDWIN BENDYK IN KRYTYKA: “This particular period of history was the starting point for me for the workshops on the future that I conducted during the Góry Literatury festival in Nowa Ruda in the summer. I am glad that the threads from these various discussions, initiated by Olga, became the material for her thoughts and went out into the world carried by the words of her lecture. Today we have two strong messages showing how to save the world. Greta Thunberg, a teenage Swede – an icon of youth climate activism – says: let's trust science! Olga Tokarczuk says: let's trust literature! The future depends on whether we can follow these two calls simultaneously.” https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kultura/czytaj-dalej/edwin-bendyk-olga-tokarczuk-ratuje-swiat/ -- MINISTER OF FINANCE TADEUSZ KOŚCIŃSKI ON AN EXPORT-ORIENTED APPROACH: “You can always find something positive; you just need to approach the problem differently to solve it. I am certainly close to the Ministry of Development. If indeed tougher times are coming, if the German economy is slowing down (which is an important trading partner for us), then what should we do together with the Ministry of Development? We should help our businesses go out of Poland, go further, beyond Europe.” https://wpolityce.pl/gospodarka/477168-pierwszy-prasowy-wywiad-z-ministrem-finansow-t-koscinskim -- BIRTHDAYS: Jerzy Starak, Gabriela Lenartowicz, Jacek Najder, Klaus Bachmann.