-- BIELAN ON POSSIBLE TIGHTENING, JAKUBIAK ON ENDANGERING CITIZENS' HEALTH, KIDAWA ON WITHDRAWING FROM ELECTIONS - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/03/24/ -- GOVERNMENT TO TIGHTEN QUARANTINE - JOANNA ĆWIEK IN RZ: “The government will tighten quarantine rules – ‘Rzeczpospolita’ has learned. A decision on this matter will be announced today after the anti-crisis staff meeting. All this is to slow down the growth curve of infections as much as possible by the holidays. So that the economy can gradually start moving after Easter. Otherwise, Poland faces recession. According to our information, all shops except food stores will be closed. Boulevards, parks, forests, and playgrounds will also be inaccessible. However, it will be possible to go to work.” https://www.rp.pl/Koronawirus-SARS-CoV-2/200329636-PILNE-Zaostrzenie-kwarantanny-zamkniete-sklepy-parki-i-place-zabaw.html -- PLATFORM DOES NOT WANT PIS TO BE ABLE TO USE ELECTRONIC VOTING IN THE SEJM IN THE FUTURE - ANDRZEJ STANKIEWICZ IN ONET: “During the RBN (Presidential Council of National Security) deliberations, PO (Civic Platform) leader Borys Budka protested. He did not like the fact that PiS (Law and Justice) proposed introducing this regulation permanently, not just for the duration of the epidemic. – We don’t trust PiS. If we agree to such a change, they will have a powerful tool left after the epidemic passes. In all matters inconvenient for them, they will organize online sessions and votes. For 5 years, they have shown how they treat us in the Sejm, so we cannot give them a new tool to marginalize the opposition – says our interlocutor from the Platform's board.” https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/koronawirus-w-polsce-klotnia-u-prezydenta-o-posiedzenie-sejmu/spc07ly -- ISN'T IT BETTER TO PROTECT RISK GROUPS MORE - SŁAWOMIR SIERAKOWSKI in Onet: “Wouldn’t it have been better to focus only on the risk group and let the rest live normally, learn, and work? There wouldn’t be such a problem with the number of tests, masks, hospital beds, medical personnel, etc. Financial resources could have been allocated to test everyone in the risk group, effectively treat the sick, and enforce strict quarantine for those with negative test results. Testing and treating everyone with symptoms means that with the limited capabilities of the healthcare system, there won’t be enough space for some of those most in need. So, a certain number of victims could have been avoided. And some cases, if schools hadn’t been closed and people hadn’t returned from abroad, leading to the mass mixing of the sick with the healthy.” -- HAS THE FIGHT AGAINST THE VIRUS BECOME MORE DEVASTATING THAN THE DISEASE ITSELF? - SIERAKOWSKI CONTINUES: “Has the fight against the virus become more terrifying than the disease itself? Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center in the United States, compared the current fight against coronavirus in the ‘New York Times’ to a war of mutual annihilation. Instead, one could have opted for a ‘surgical operation,’ i.e., identifying the most vulnerable group (the elderly and those with other illnesses) and subjecting them to strict quarantine and treatment. It would not have been necessary to ruin the economy, transport, close schools and universities, or ban travel. The head of the Yale Prevention Center fears that the number of victims of the current policy will be greater than from the virus itself (in the US, just over 200 people have died so far).” https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/opinie/koronawirus-lekarstwo-gorsze-od-choroby-opinia/pvegc65 -- WHEN DOES PIS TELL THE TRUTH? - ŁUKASZ PAWŁOWSKI in KULTURA LIBERALNA: “Recordings showing individual PiS politicians contradicting not only their party colleagues but also themselves should be presented to the public regularly. During the epidemic, reliable and factual information is crucial. The ruling party is not providing it, and its politicians are simply lying – either when they assure us that everything is under control and life will return to relative normality by May 10th, or when, like Minister Szumowski, they claim they don't know how long the epidemic will last and the worst is yet to come. Honestly, I trust Minister Szumowski’s declarations more. Especially since the British and German authorities, among others, also speak of the huge scale of the epidemic.” -- IT'S HARD NOT TO ASK WHERE THE OPPOSITION IS TODAY? - PAWŁOWSKI'S CONCLUSION: “IT’S HARD NOT TO ASK: WHERE IS THE OPPOSITION TODAY?! “Highlighting glaring inconsistencies in government reports, drawing attention to the problems of successive hospitals and other healthcare facilities with basic equipment, the illusiveness of support for people losing their livelihoods today, and finally, demanding reliable information about the scale of the epidemic. This is the opposition’s basic duty to the citizens. It is also an action in line with its political interests. Because – regardless of what we hear from the government about the need to rise above political divisions – they have not given up on playing politics.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/03/24/polityka-po-epidemia-koronawirus-opozycja/ -- THE POTENTIAL FOR PUSHING DEMOCRACY ASIDE - KAROLINA WIGURA'S CONSIDERATIONS in KULTURA LIBERALNA: “The coronavirus epidemic, like those twenty-century disasters, has the potential to push the fate of democracy aside in the face of the specter of impending catastrophe. Like them, it presents us with challenges. First: what to protect – freedom or one’s own existence? Second: how to remain vigilant to threats to democracy when we are primarily trying to protect the health and lives of our loved ones? For many decades, past catastrophes were considered teachers of the present. They can be helpful to us now.” -- VICTORY OVER THE THREAT OF HUMANITY'S DESTRUCTION CANNOT COME AT THE COST OF DEMOCRACY'S DESTRUCTION - WIGURA'S CONCLUSION: “At least for now, Poles’ reaction to the epidemic seems adequate and serious. Unlike in other countries, there have been no cases of widespread violation of introduced regulations. However, obedience to laws, especially those introduced ad hoc, bypassing complex legislative processes, is not enough for a good democracy. We know from reports that Singapore, a mildly authoritarian country, is coping excellently with the coronavirus. Many democracies fare worse against Singapore. They introduce countermeasures differently, somewhat more subtly, perhaps more slowly. It is worth remembering that this often stems not from a lack of effectiveness, but from a deep respect for individual freedom. And also, that victory over the threat of people's destruction cannot come at the cost of democracy's destruction.” -- WIGURA ON THUCYDIDES' CONSIDERATIONS: “The third warning concerns how our individual decisions during a catastrophe can contribute to the downfall of the political community and even the rule of law. What does this mean? In one of the most poignant historical accounts of plague times, found in ‘The Peloponnesian War,’ Thucydides recounts what happens when a disease decimating the population strikes Athens. The best citizens die because they tend to the sick, from whom they inevitably become infected. Meanwhile, the worst, most selfish members of the community stay home and survive. The fear of death, inevitable upon infection, makes them think only of how to quickly avail themselves of material goods and all pleasures. Although it seems that all this is merely the sum of individual actions trying to cope with the catastrophe, in the background, collective solidarity silently perishes, the rule of law collapses, and the political community disintegrates. Athenian democracy, so praised in the same book just a few pages earlier in Pericles’ famous funeral oration, enters a crisis close to total destruction during the plague.” ihttps://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/03/24/demokracja-i-epidemia-trzy-ostrzezenia-z-przeszlosci-dla-czasow-nowej-zarazy/ -- Photo by Leo Von Klenze. View of the Acropolis and Areopagus in Athens, Alte Pinakothek in Munich. -- MICHAŁ KARNOWSKI ON THE PLAN TO CANCEL ELECTIONS: “The patriotic camp must recognize what is happening, what plan has been revealed to us: Donald Tusk, the evocation of Smoleńsk, multiplying brutal personal attacks on Kaczyński, the desire to manipulate the election date – this is too similar to the events of a decade ago to sleep soundly. Are they trying to reactivate those mechanisms again, to pull those levers used then? Apparently so. It is very distasteful: while the ruling camp is fighting for the safety of Poles and trying to prevent economic collapse (temporarily unavoidable globally), our opposition and a large part of its media are scheming how to build a revolutionary situation on this ground, incite one against another, and seize power. But these are the facts. And the unconstitutional and hasty attempt to force the annulment of the elections is a central element of this plan. Calm, responsibility, and political wisdom will be very necessary in the coming weeks.” https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/492612-opozycja-nawiazuje-do-smolenska-a-tusk-atakuje-kaczynskiego -- POSTPONEMENT OF ELECTIONS WILL SHAKE THE POLITICAL SYSTEM - JACEK KARNOWSKI: “Right-wing, remember: the election date is set by the constitutional calendar. States of natural disaster or emergency are decided by the government, not the opposition. Finally: the government has an obligation to do everything possible for the elections to take place on the scheduled date. Because the opposition, in its haste to postpone them, is not guided by safety concerns – it is too early to decide on that – but by its own political interest. Postponing the vote to autumn, or perhaps later, will shake the entire political system. This is essentially an invitation to a dance from which the ruling camp can only lose. And Poland will not benefit from further months of uncertainty in a situation where it will be necessary to clean up after the epidemic.” https://wpolityce.pl/m/polityka/492575-jesli-to-opozycja-wskaze-termin-wyborow-bedzie-po-wszystkim -- WOJCIECH HERMELIŃSKI ON THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF ENDANGERING CITIZENS - says Agata Szczęśniak in OKO: “We are creating conditions for going to elections, for voting. If you want to vote, voter, go vote; if you want to be a poll worker, be one. The state cannot transfer the risk of infection, loss of health, or even life to the citizen. The state must protect the citizen. Article 5 of the Constitution states that the state must ensure the safety of citizens. I understand this also includes sanitary and health safety. And this is not safety if citizens are told: you can go vote because the polling stations will be open, you can sign up as a poll worker, it's your decision. The situation cannot be framed this way.” -- HERMELIŃSKI ON THE THREAT OF INVALIDATING THE RESULT: “Polls vary, but let's assume theoretically that President Duda wins in the first round. I suspect he would win by a small margin: 1 percent or one and a half. This percentage could include voters who didn't go to vote because they were in quarantine or feared infection. I believe that protests from such voters would have a chance of success. It would end with the annulment of the entire election. I don't know if the authorities are really pushing so hard for this to happen. Theoretically, from a legal point of view, this could happen.” https://oko.press/trybunal-stanu-lub-odpowiedzialnosc-karna-za-przeprowadzenie-wyborow-10-maja-teoretycznie-to-mozliwe/ -- KOSINIAK IS SUCCEEDING - JACEK NIZINKIEWICZ in RZ: “The crisis period is a leadership test. A responsible opposition should seek consensus and calmly present its proposals. Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz is succeeding in this, appealing to the authorities for cooperation without aggression, while also pointing out their mistakes, thereby gaining the favor of voters. PO, by making demands and calling for equipping hospitals and purchasing tests, which it is also right about, is cornering the government. Poles are already living under stress, so they don’t need political quarrels.” https://www.rp.pl/Analizy/303239895-Nizinkiewicz-Opozycja-w-pulapce-PiS.html -- THE CHAIRMAN HAS STARTED A SOCIAL ROULETTE - ZUZANNA DĄBROWSKA in RZ: “So, even if the crowds at the ballot boxes led to an increase in infections that could not be hidden – there is no need to worry about public perception. The authorities will receive three years of peace. Besides, who will prove that it had anything to do with visiting the polling station? The entire plan was essentially directly announced by the chairman on Krzysztof Ziemiec’s show on RMF. The message was necessary at this point to reach as widely as possible, to all members of the ruling camp and potential voters. The interpretation by his people was unequivocal. The chairman has started social roulette. No more bets – the bets are off.” https://www.rp.pl/Analizy/303239896-Dabrowska-Ludzka-ruletka-Jaroslawa-Kaczynskiego.html -- THE OPPOSITION SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTIVE BUT NOT STOP WATCHING THE GOVERNMENT'S HANDS - Michał Szułdrzyński in RZ: “The opposition should primarily exercise prudence today. Wherever the ruling camp shows goodwill – cooperate and focus on work for Poland, the economy, and citizens. But the epidemic cannot cause the rulers to demand an unlimited blank check of trust from political opponents. It is worth being kind, but one cannot be gullible. RBN meetings cannot replace normal legislative work in parliament. The opposition should be constructive, but it should not stop diligently watching the government’s hands.” https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/303239882-Szuldrzynski-Bilans-RBN-jednak-na-plus.html -- BIRTHDAYS: Zbigniew Konwiński, Marek Wójcik.