-- KIDAWAA DOES NOT WANT EITHER TOTAL OPPOSITION OR SYMMETRY – 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/02/08/ -- DID HE HAVE THE RIGHT TO QUESTION THE VALIDITY OF THE KRS – PIOTR ZAREMBA IN PTT ABOUT JUSZCZYSZYN: “It is not true that everything announced by a judge is a valid verdict or decision. And it is not true that if he breaks the law with such a verdict or decision, he is not exposed to consequences. The new law, called the gag law, only strengthened this principle, but it did not invent it. I invite the defenders of Juszczyszyn, instead of repeating general phrases about the separation of powers, to prove that the judge had the right, in the course of any case, to question the legality of the current KRS. Regardless of what we ourselves think about this legality.” -- SOMETHING IS WRONG WHEN A JUDGE IS QUESTIONED AND IT BECOMES THE NORM: “I will dedicate a reflection to the other side. Challenging judicial verdicts as unlawful, let alone suspending a judge for them, should be something absolutely exceptional. If it becomes the norm, something is wrong with the system. And it is not enough to respond by shouting about judicial arbitrariness and demanding punishments. Meanwhile, the right responds with uproar. Often absurd. It is becoming a habit to cite subsequent 'unjust' verdicts as proof of the need for 'greater control over judges.' For instance, a court reduced the sentence for a three-year-old rapist. Even Leszek Miller was outraged, because how could one not be. Another court fined journalist Michał Majewski (an opponent of 'good change,' by the way) for resisting ABW during the memorable raid on the editorial office of 'Wprost'. Juszczyszyn himself is stigmatized for a past verdict that allegedly ruined some farmer. I am not downplaying this. I just want to know what those shouting are proposing. -- POLES WILL LIKELY LISTEN TO CRITICS OF THE JUDICIARY – ZAREMBA CONTINUES: “I fear that regardless of the elites’ outrage, Poles will likely listen to the critics of the current judiciary. Unless, of course, they blame the right for the chaos caused by two legal orders in the justice system. But that is probably not until May. The paradox is that the right may win this case electorally, but not substantively. Especially since there is also the foreign factor, which is not eager and does not always decide, but hangs over the entire dispute. Reminding those excited by Juszczyszyn’s punishment, the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court can currently ignore the resolution of three other chambers stating that their new colleagues are not a court. However, when the ECJ, as a form of security, 'freezes' this chamber, threatening Poland with millions of fines, it will be harder to pretend that nothing happened. And this is expected to happen any day now.” https://polskatimes.pl/piotr-zaremba-gdzie-konczy-sie-sedziowska-niezawislosc/ar/c1-14770632 -- THE BRITISH POLITICAL PROJECT DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE LABELED A NATIONALIST-POPULIST DELUSION – LUDWIK DORN ON TVN24 MAGAZINE: “London's role as a global center for banking and insurance is widely known, but the transformation of Manchester and its comparison with Detroit is more instructive. This city, the earliest and most industrialized during the Industrial Revolution (Friedrich Engels described it in the canonical Marxist text 'The Condition of the Working Class in England'), experienced a collapse in the 1970s and 1980s – it lost nearly 100,000 jobs in traditional industry, but later recovered – currently, over 90,000 people are employed there in banking and insurance. Since maintaining Great Britain's leading role in banking, finance, and insurance is linked to the continuation and development of free trade, Boris Johnson's concept of 'Global Britain' involves defending and upholding the liberal international order, threatened by protectionist tendencies most clearly expressed by US President Donald Trump. We do not know if this political project will be successful, but it is evident that it is consistent, refers to realities, and has substance. And it does not deserve to be disqualified by being labeled a 'populist-nationalist delusion.'” https://tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/szekspir-w-odzie-do-anglii-wylozyl-wszystkie-motywy-jej-wyjscia-z-ue,256,4465 -- JAN ROKITA ON HOŁOWNIA'S WASTED OPPORTUNITY: “But first impressions are important. A candidate should present themselves as a serious player who has a chance to reach the second round – regardless of whether it's the beginning, middle, or end of the campaign. Producing a video doesn't even have to require significant financial resources. The idea is more important. In Pete Buttigieg's short spots, who achieved a sensationally good result in the Iowa caucuses, you see the candidate talking to voters on specific topics. Sometimes it's healthcare, other times Buttigieg presents himself as a war veteran and explains what sacrifice for the homeland means (in the video, he irons shirts and talks with other veterans). It's simplicity, which conveys a very concrete message.” https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/1941626,1,dlaczego-spot-holowni-to-popis-politycznej-nieudolnosci.read?src=mt -- HOŁOWNIA LACKS IDEAS AND A PLACE – WIKTOR ŚWIETLIK ON WP: “There is no plan for candidate Szymon Hołownia, but more importantly, there is really no place for him. 'I have great hopes for the future, the past was overrated' – Sylvester Stallone peculiarly motivated himself and others. It seems that in Szymon Hołownia's candidacy, it was overrated from the beginning, and hopes for the future are slim. This is not so much the fault of the popular journalist and presenter himself, but rather of the people who came up with the product titled 'Hołownia for President.' In essence, they didn't invent it at all, and the question is whether it could have been invented.” https://opinie.wp.pl/swietlik-szymon-holownia-czyli-kandydat-bez-pomyslu-opinia-6476190336386689a -- JACEK GĄDEK ON THE TENSION BETWEEN GOWIN'S AND ZIOBRO'S SENTIMENTS: “Solidarna Polska politicians play the role of paladins of 'good change' – righteous and virtuous warriors fighting evil. On Saturday, Zbigniew Ziobro's party is organizing a convention on judicial reforms at the Palladium Theatre. 'Not a step back' – this, as an SP politician tells us, is the signal meant to go out to Poland. Ziobro and his deputies will primarily boast. At the same time, the Ziobro-Gowin tension is escalating, with Gowin criticizing the Minister of Justice.” https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25675504,ani-kroku-wstecz-za-kulisami-narasta-napiecie-miedzy-zbigniewem.html – BORYS BUDKA ON WHAT HE REPLIED TO ANDRZEJ DUDA REGARDING THE REASON FOR WHICH HE WOULD BE BROUGHT BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL – told to Donata Subbotko in GW: “I said, not for the first time. And he asked what specifically, when we win, we would want to bring him before the State Tribunal for. I said, for swearing in three illegally elected substitute judges to the Constitutional Tribunal and for unlawfully appointing the President of the Tribunal, Julia Przyłębska. He replied that we differ in our assessment and that he has never broken the constitution.” -- ANDRZEJ, START BEING PRESIDENT – BUDKA ON THE CONVERSATION WITH PAD: “And about the 'gag law,' I said: 'You veto it, but Andrzej, you have a ready draft law.' We are on 'ty' (informal 'you'), but the president was the first to address me that way. Then it got heated, though politely. I said: 'You've become Ziobro's deputy. Andrzej, you start being president. You promised Ziobro wouldn't have such power.' And he kept insisting. We parted amicably. I know Andrzej Duda privately. At the beginning of my first term in the Sejm, we were together in the legislative committee. We sometimes talked over coffee. Very polite. He congratulated me when I became Minister of Justice, and I congratulated him when he became president. For another two years, we sent each other SMS messages with holiday wishes; then our paths diverged. He had a chance to be a president above divisions. But he is not.” -- KACZYŃSKI DOES NOT KNOW THE ORDINARY WORLD – BUDKA CONTINUES: “I won with authenticity. People in Platform know me; I've worked at the grassroots for years, I've been to every province. They see this energy. Today I drove from Gliwice in my own car, parked in a shopping mall parking lot, went to Michalski's shop to buy those sweet rolls. There are business meetings where it's appropriate to go with a driver, but otherwise, I live like everyone else. Jarosław Kaczyński, on the other hand, doesn't know the ordinary world; he doesn't walk the streets, doesn't go to the grocery store for bread. It's frankly terrifying.” -- BUDKA'S WORLDVIEW CREDO: “Religion in schools, if parents wish – but outside of the curriculum, without grades, and funded by them. Fees deductible from taxes or a type of educational voucher – parents would decide whether to use it for religion or, for example, for extra English. The state should allow for partnership unions regardless of the sex of the individuals involved. I am against abortion on demand, but there should be comprehensive sex education in schools. The ellaOne pill should not require a prescription. If an adult woman has to go to a doctor to ask for a 'day after' pill…” -- BUDKA ON ALLEGED JOBS IN THE FUR INDUSTRY KILLING ANIMALS: “I would support any solution that benefits animals, including a ban on keeping dogs on chains and on fur farming, but a transitional period must be given so as not to suddenly lose thousands of jobs in this industry.” -- BUDKA ON HIS FASCINATION WITH ITALY: “My grandfather, in retirement, taught himself Italian because he found the address of an Italian soldier in his notes who had spent one night at their village while fleeing the front. He wrote to his family, wherever he found an address in Italy, he wrote letters, and Italian companies sent him books. He infected me so much that I also learned Italian. I've been to Italy to work a few times, organized entertainment for children, including Italian children. I love that country, the climate, the culture, the views, the old towns, Tuscany, Calabria, and Apulia.” https://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,25676305,borys-budka-duda-zapytal-mnie-za-co-konkretnie-bedziemy-chcieli.html -- THEY SHOULD CARE ABOUT LAW AND JUSTICE, NOT LAW OR JUSTICE – ANDRZEJ STANKIEWICZ ON JUDGES FAVORING THE GOVERNMENT: “It is obvious that judges like Przyłębska, Tomczyński, Zaradkiewicz, or Nawacki should be taking care of Law and Justice in the courts, not law and justice.” -- STANKIEWICZ ON PRZYŁĘBSKA SAYING SHE IS THE 5TH PERSON IN THE STATE: “Before becoming the unexpected President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Julia Przyłębska was a judge of inferior quality, barely promoted to the District Court, with no chance of further career. Today, she calls herself the fifth person in the state and presides at the gatherings of the PiS leader.” -- STANKIEWICZ ON THE TALENTED ZARADKIEWICZ: “Dr. habil. Kamil Zaradkiewicz – once a favorite of TK President Andrzej Rzepliński – made a volte-face when it turned out that the previous government had not given him any lucrative position. He received a Supreme Court judge position from PiS and uses his undoubted legal talents for the benefit of a party to which he is completely unsuited in his lifestyle and views.” https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/marni-sedziowie-wladzy-newsletter/4f2sfpt -- JAN ROKITA ON SHARING PARTY SUBSIDIES WITH SMALLER PARTNERS – GOWIN DREAMS OF LEADING A PARTY WITH FULL AUTHORITY – writes in Polsatnews.pl magazine: “However, there is a fundamental, one might say – 'identity' – difference between the two groups, stemming from their very origins. While SP is essentially a mental part of PiS that, due to the past recalcitrance of Ziobro, Kurski, and Cymański, was forced almost by chance to construct its own organizational distinctiveness, PJG, on the other hand, consists of conservative-liberal dissidents from Civic Platform, different from PiS in every respect, and attached to it solely out of a sense of their own weakness. It is clear that for Gowin and his associates (among whom are now several politically prominent figures, such as Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz), the dream is to gain the status of a party with full authority, i.e., one that wins parliamentary seats from its own lists in elections. Thus, it is not condemned to feudal homage to Kaczyński, but as a 'free squire' can choose the 'knight' to whom it would like to serve. The PSL has had such a status in Polish politics for many years.” -- ROKITA ON THE TOWING EFFECT AND MANIPULATING THE PARTY SYSTEM: “From the perspective of party leaders, such a model can prove quite convenient, as it allows for the blurring of overly sharp ideological contours and adopting the form of an ideological chameleon, so favored by politicians, easily adapting to the expectations of any voter group. It is already the case today that while PiS, in its main rhetorical current, fights liberalism and liberals as the cause of all evil in Poland since regaining independence, the 'tow' offered to PJG has given the entire current ruling camp a kind of 'liberal alibi,' thanks to which (for example) large Polish businesses recently avoided a drastic increase in ZUS contributions. Meanwhile, surveys on Polish self-identification (by Flis and Kwiatkowska) unexpectedly prove a seemingly paradoxical thing: that among PiS voters, the percentage, and thus the significance, of those openly admitting to liberal views is clearly growing. In a sense, the same applies to the PSL, which in its main current remains a party of peasants and old rural nomenclature, but after offering 'a tow' to Kukiz, it can equally well be considered a bourgeois national-patriotic faction in large cities. Therefore, if the state decides on budgetary financing of parties, the subsequent control of the flow of these public funds always becomes a hidden method of manipulating the entire party system.” https://www.polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2020-02-08/pieniadze-dla-giermkow/ -- LGBT ORGANIZATIONS DO NOT FACILITATE THE ADOPTION OF THEIR GOALS, FRIGHTENING MANY POLES; THEIR RADICALISM HAS HARMED THE OPPOSITION – PIOTR ZAREMBA IN POLSATNEWS.PL MAGAZINE: “Even if the right, including the Polish right, is slowly giving up the conviction that sexual minorities can be driven back into the catacombs, this controversy remains valid. LGBT organizations also do not facilitate the adoption of their goals. Their parades are saturated with anti-religious and frankly vulgar accents, which frightens many Poles more than it breaks down resistance. Their activists are more interested in symbolic satisfactions than political effectiveness. According to many sociologists, their radicalism hindered the liberal opposition's success in 2019.” -- SHOULD PEOPLE LIVING TOGETHER NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO MEDICAL INFORMATION? – ZAREMBA CONTINUES: “On the other side of the scale, one can place other realistic questions. Should people living together not be guaranteed the right to medical information, or to bequeath their assets on different terms than to strangers? If we turn a deaf ear to this, we also risk various injustices, especially as the number of such people grows. Andrzej Duda has such regulations in mind. The law and custom have already dealt with some of these issues, but not all. So, can life be made easier for people living in a community (sometimes not necessarily sexual) without creating a facade of marriage without obligations?” -- CONSERVATISM IS NOT ABOUT IGNORING REALITIES – ZAREMBA CONTINUES: “I would advise people on the right to ask themselves such questions. Conservatism is not about ignoring realities. Although I understand that two approaches collide here. One assumes that any such concession leads to a domino effect, at the end of which is the surrender of children to same-sex couples instead of greater adoption facilitations for heterosexual families. The other suggests that an attempt at compromise is possible if cases of evident injustice to people living together and unable to sort out their life matters are not used for a kind of progressive social engineering. And such a compromise would delay the pendulum effect, i.e., a sharp swing towards progressive changes.” -- A CALM CONVERSATION ON THIS TOPIC IS IMPOSSIBLE – ZAREMBA'S CONCLUSION: “A few innocent remarks from the president, and so many conclusions from a commentator who considers himself a moderate conservative. However, I have a feeling that a calm conversation on these topics is impossible today. It is thwarted by the logic of crushing party and ideological polarization.” https://www.polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2020-02-08/zaremba-konserwatyzm-nie-polega-na-ignorowaniu-realiow/ -- WOJCIECH ORLIŃSKI, USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE IOWA CAUCUSES, MOCKS THE POSTULATE OF VOTING OVER THE INTERNET – in GW: “Supporters of online voting are politicians who care about cultivating an image of being modern, digital, and generally hashtag dot com. Also, representatives of technology companies, who are guided by the age-old principle 'pecunia non olet' – when a fool throws money away, it's not a sin to pick it up. We see such politicians on both the left and the right. Unfortunately, also in Poland. Stupidity has no passport or party colors. Let's not delude ourselves. Introducing online voting in Poland would end up the same way. The Democrats presented Trump with a gift this way – we would present Putin with a gift. All the problems that online voting is supposed to solve can be solved better and cheaper with non-technological methods. Are older people having trouble getting to polling stations? Someone should be sent to help them. Are young people not interested in elections? Then they need to be engaged (after all, an app won't interest them on its own).” https://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,25676076,orlinski-wprowadzajac-w-polsce-glosowanie-przez-internet-zrobilibysmy.html -- WHY WOULD RUSSIA ATTACK POLAND WHERE THE PIS GOVERNMENT IS IN POWER – Paweł Wroński in GW: “The Ministry of National Defence claims that by 2035, it will spend PLN 535 billion on modernization. This is realistic, but under several conditions: that the next government upholds the plan to increase defense spending from 2.1 to 2.5 percent of GDP, that Poland does not face a major economic crisis by 2035 – and that Poland is not attacked by Russia. At least this one condition seems to be met. Because why would it attack? Especially since the PiS government is in power.” https://wyborcza.pl/magazyn/7,124059,25675326,wedlug-mon-polska-jest-wtyczka-do-amerykanskiego-gniazdka.html -- PIOTR ZAREMBA REVIEWS 'MAN OF LA MANCHA' AND WRITES ABOUT MICHNIK IN THE AUDITORIUM: “After the premiere of Dale Wasserman's 'Man of La Mancha' at the Warsaw Dramatic Theatre, I witnessed euphoria and joy from the audience (Adam Michnik, many actors, theatre people in the auditorium, and the undersigned in the back rows). Everyone was delighted; even the usual grumblers had nothing negative to say this time. The phrase 'This is a celebration of theatre' was repeated. Somewhere on the side, a 'theatre person' reminded that it is, after all, just a musical with its immortal rules, that here and there we discover almost Hollywood-esque sentimentality (the work was also filmed), that some declamations, especially from the finale, are easily predictable.” https://polskatimes.pl/prawdziwe-swieto-teatru-czlowiek-z-la-manczy-w-dramatycznym/ar/c15-14761942 -- BIRTHDAYS: Jan Śpiewak, Janusz Schwertner, Daniel Rząsa, Piotr Apel, Michał Woś, Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, SUNDAY: Tadeusz Syryjczyk, Michał Tomaszewski, Barbara Błońska-Fajfrowska.