-- ZGORZELSKI ON ELECTIONS VIA CORRESPONDENCE AND INTERNET IN A YEAR, GOWIN DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM TERLECKI'S WORDS ABOUT COMMISSIONERS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/04/01/ -- MICHAŁ KOLANKO IN RZ ON GOWIN'S VETO: “However, according to our sources, Porozumienie (Agreement) led by Jarosław Gowin has expressed a decisive veto against the scenario of postal voting at Nowogrodzka Street [PiS headquarters]. The Deputy Prime Minister's party has 18 MPs, which theoretically allows them to block the change. – In a previous similar situation, when Gowin stood his ground regarding the thirtyfold increase in ZUS contributions, a 'forceful' vote did not happen, even though there was an opportunity to talk with Lewica [The Left] then – notes our interlocutor from PiS. The temperature of the talks has significantly increased in the last dozen or so hours.” https://www.rp.pl/Polityka/200339779-Starcie-o-majowe-wybory-W-PiS-rosnie-zaniepokojenie.html -- JACEK GĄDEK ON GOWIN'S GAME: THE GOVERNMENT'S FUTURE HUNG BY A THREAD - writes in Gazeta.pl: “The ruling camp found itself on the brink of collapse because the PiS leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, issued an ultimatum that Jarosław Gowin rejected: support for changing the Electoral Code or the Deputy Prime Minister's resignation and the expulsion of his party (Porozumienie) from the PiS government. – The government's future hung by a thread – a key politician from the PiS camp tells us. -- NOWOGRODZKA WANTED TO BREAK UP GOWIN'S GROUP - CONTINUES GĄDEK: “For Gowin, the May 10th date for the presidential election is unacceptable. Sounding out individual MPs of Porozumienie on whether they would vote against Gowin in favor of Nowogrodzka's project yielded an answer: it's impossible to 'poach' these MPs. Nowogrodzka had to back down.” -- SZUMOWSKI IS WAITING FOR THE ANSWER TO PRESENT ITSELF - CONTINUES GĄDEK: “Szumowski adopted a strategy where, after Easter, the answer to the question of whether the elections would be safe would present itself. In his statements, he emphasizes that a wave of infections and deaths awaits us, so it is obvious that – although he doesn't explicitly state it – he is against the May 10th elections. A politician close to Nowogrodzka says: – We are waiting. We want to see how the measures prescribed by Szumowski will work. If they start bringing very good results and it can be said that the epidemic is under control, then the elections can be organized. In the core of PiS and in the Presidential Palace, there is no doubt that the best – and in every respect – is to hold the elections on May 10th. If only it is possible.” https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25834834,przyszlosc-rzadu-wisiala-na-cienkiej-nitce-kulisy-wojny-o.html -- KACZYŃSKI IS AGAIN GRUMBLING AT THE BALLOT BOX - title in GW. -- TURNOUT ON MAY 10TH WOULD BE 35% - SURVEY FOR WPOLITYCE. PAD 47, MKB 19, WKK 10, SH 9, RB 6, KB 4: https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/493869-andrzej-duda-wygrywa-w-pierwszej-turze-ale-spada-frekwencja -- DISCUSSIONS ABOUT POSTPONING ELECTIONS CAN BE HAD WITH A NORMAL OPPOSITION, NOT WITH A TOTAL ONE - MICHAŁ KARNOWSKI: “Here arises the most important question: would opposition members consider the president's mandate to govern for even one day after the expiration of his term? Would they respect this postponement, which they themselves are so strongly appealing for? I highly doubt it. Very much so. One can pose the opposite thesis: the opposition is so keen on changing the election date that the day after winning this case, they will start proclaiming that the president has no democratic and constitutional mandate, that they will not recognize this government, that they will not adhere to these laws. And again – a coup is supposed to start. Operations like postponing elections can be done with a normal opposition. Not with a total one. https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/493841-w-debacie-o-wyborach-jedna-rzecz-umyka-kluczowa -- STATE OF EXCEPTION THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION - DOMINIKA WIELOWIEYSKA: “First, postal voting for everyone, then elections forcibly conducted in chaos and without proper procedures. And the day after the elections, the introduction of a state of exception, which will allow for the pacification of social protests and the dismantling of local government power. This is the scenario I fear if PiS's coalition partner and Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin succumbs to Jarosław Kaczyński's demands.” -- THE AUTHORITIES WILL BE ABLE TO DISMANTLE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS - CONTINUES WIELOWIEYSKA: “The authorities will be able to dismantle local governments. And we in Poland will have authoritarian rule. This is a peculiar coup d'état. Yes, I fear this scenario.” -- WIELOWIEYSKA ON HOPE FOR GOWIN'S VETO: “However, I hope that there are decent people in the ruling camp who, although they have compromised their conscience many times – for what they believe to be higher goals – will draw a line this time. May this hope not be in vain.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,25833911,co-bedzie-gdy-gowin-ulegnie-kaczynskiemu.html,25832704,zapier-za-miske-ryzu-czyli-jak-zamrozic-oczekiwania-polakow.html -- THERE WILL BE NO ELECTIONS, THE MANEUVER WAS ABOUT MINIMIZING LOSSES - LUDWIK DORN IN GW: “I am convinced that immediately after Easter or a week later, the government, with Jarosław Kaczyński's blessing, will introduce a state of natural disaster, and there will be no elections on May 10th. It is about minimizing their own losses and the possibility of conducting propaganda aimed at the opposition.” -- HE DOES NOT WANT TO YIELD TO THE PRESSURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS - CONTINUES DORN ON KACZYŃSKI'S ESCAPE ROUTE: “By March 31st, about 120 gmin (municipal) leaders announced that, regardless of the consequences, they would block the elections because they do not want to endanger the health and lives of their residents. This means that the May 10th elections cannot be held anyway. PiS, and particularly its leader Jarosław Kaczyński, does not want it to become clear that he yielded under the pressure of local government officials. It would be an admission of political defeat.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,25834924,glosowanie-korespondencyjne-wielka-mistyfikacja-kaczynskiego.html -- AN ISOLATED ELDERLY GENTLEMAN AS AN ABSOLUTE RULER - PIOTR ZAREMBA in DGP: “He is today an elderly gentleman operating alone in the party headquarters, avoiding meetings, not looking at the internet. He doesn't feel or understand the sentiments of an ordinary Pole afraid for his family. The paradox is that this isolated gentleman is, in certain spheres, an absolute ruler – for his party and the state apparatus. Morawiecki was encouraged to take more energetic symbolic leadership during the crisis. He explained that he didn't want to overshadow the president, on whom the camp is still betting. But in reality, the Prime Minister wants to avoid a collision with someone else entirely, whom everyone senses behind him.” -- PEOPLE ARE DRAWN TO POWER, BUT IT DOESN'T ALLOW ITSELF TO BE LOVED - CONTINUES ZAREMBA: “The party leader always considers softness a weakness in such cases – adds my interlocutor. It's paradoxical, such a complete spoiling of the image of one's camp, at a time when the opposition, especially its strongest party, Civic Platform, also has image problems. Because in turn, it positions itself as a group of embittered critics. People are still drawn to power, but it doesn't allow itself to be loved. The leading administrators of the fight against the epidemic, with the Prime Minister at their head, repeated like mannequins phrases intended to justify the May 10th date.” -- EVENTUALLY, A STATE OF DISASTER WILL BE INTRODUCED - CONTINUES ZAREMBA in DGP: “PiS is acting like a well-oiled machine in this matter, although many of its politicians believe that the opinion of doctors, led by Łukasz Szumowski, will be decisive in the first half of April. And so it will probably be. Eventually, a state of natural disaster will be introduced, which frightens the rulers, if only because of the consequences: the necessity of paying Poles compensation for damages. The operation of changing the constitution is unlikely, if only due to the deadlines. From its submission to its adoption by the Sejm, 30 days must pass. The difficulty in reaching an agreement between the rulers and the opposition is also a fact.” -- SOME THINGS CANNOT BE UNSEEN, INCLUDING THE TERRIBLE PIŚ OLD MAN, MARSHAL TERLECKI - CONTINUES ZAREMBA: “PiS already wanted to retreat slightly today – everyone could vote by mail. But at the same time, it proposes, hesitantly, that the police and army could organize the elections. And some things can no longer be 'unseen,' thrown out of Poles' minds. Including the terrible PiS old man, Deputy Marshal Ryszard Terlecki, threatening local government officials with penalties if they do not wish to participate in the electoral process. Perhaps never before has the problem of an anachronistic leadership model of someone who has so many victories to his credit been so strongly presented.” https://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/opinie/artykul-prasowy/6473875,koronawirus-covid-19-kaczynski-zaremba-opinia.html -- DUDA NEGATIVELY DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF AGAINST MORAWIECKI - MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI in RZ: “Alongside them, the team of economic ministers is working on the anti-crisis shield. Mateusz Morawiecki heads it, and at the same time announces new restrictions for national quarantine. Even with reservations about the methods and ideas, it is difficult to accuse the aforementioned individuals of not trying with all their energy to fight the effects of the epidemic. Against this backdrop, President Andrzej Duda stands out negatively. While thousands of people are fighting the coronavirus, he opens an account on TikTok and encourages electronic games. Maliciously, one could say that it would be better for the president to spend his quarantine watching TikTok videos instead of visiting workplaces in Gierek's style and opening production lines for hand sanitizer.” https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/200339785-Michal-Szuldrzynski-Dwoch-panow-kontra-rzeczywistosc.html -- Photo for April Fools': Dutch Proverbs, also known as The World Turned Upside Down – a painting from 1559 by Pieter Bruegel (Gemäldegalerie Galerie, Berlin) – a Dutch painter, one of the main representatives of the Northern Renaissance. *“We are discovering ever new references to Dutch proverbs that the painter hid on the canvas, about a hundred of them: one cannot swim against the current (a man swimming against the river current), to put a spoke in someone's wheel (a wagon wheel with a spoke in it), to beat one's head against a wall, to cast pearls before swine. 5 Bruegel also depicts a series of folk wisdoms that must be characteristic of his native culture, as it is not easy to find Polish equivalents for them. For example: one must bend to get through the world (a man squeezing through a sphere), to carry fire in one hand and water in the other (to be untrustworthy), the blue cloak (a symbol of betrayal).”* https://niezlasztuka.net/o-sztuce/pieter-bruegel-przyslowia-niderlandzkie/ -- THE CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS OF ELECTIONS IS NOT JUST THE ELECTORAL ACT - PROF. ANDRZEJ ZOLL in RZ: “I am very concerned about the authorities' approach to the date of the presidential elections. I believe it violates citizens' rights. The constitutional basis of elections concerns not only the electoral act itself but also the stage of preparation for it. We are observing serious violations of constitutional principles, for example, regarding the equal treatment of candidates running in the elections.” -- FEAR THAT THE AUTHORITIES WILL GET USED TO RESTRICTING CIVIL RIGHTS - CONTINUES ZOLL in RZ: “We are condemned to the restriction of civil rights by the government, which is not drawing lessons from this. An example is the problems with convening the Sejm. These stem from the lack of declaration of a state of natural disaster. It is entirely sufficient to resolve them. I would not introduce any other changes to the legal system, as there is a fear that they will become entrenched, and the authorities will get used to them. The example of Hungary clearly shows that some solutions will last longer there. We must have a guarantee that when the crisis passes, may it happen as soon as possible, there will be no getting used to restricting civil rights.” https://www.rp.pl/Felietony/200339780-Andrzej-Zoll-Nie-przyzwyczajmy-sie-do-ograniczania-praw-obywatelskich.html -- THE DARK FIGURE OF VICTIMS - front page of GW: “WHO for years has considered Polish statistics on causes of death as unreliable. Several years ago, the Central Statistical Office warned that doctors inaccurately identify causes of death, preferring some diseases and omitting others. Krzysztof Kordel, a forensic physician, former president of the Wielkopolska Chamber of Physicians: – Polish doctors have been entering death certificates incorrectly for years. For this reason, WHO does not take Polish epidemiological data into account. This is due to a lack of experience, knowledge, not political caution.” https://poznan.wyborcza.pl/poznan/7,36001,25834069,ciemna-liczba-ofiar-wirusa.html?_ga=2.222979163.178179028.1585554876-1645292222.1527144930 -- BIRTHDAYS: Wojciech Jasiński, Katarzyna Zawada.