-- THE PERCENTAGE OF COMPANIES PLANNING LAYOFFS DROPS FROM 28% TO 8%. FEWER ALSO INTEND TO REDUCE SALARIES - POLISH ECONOMIC INSTITUTE: "As late as the end of March, 71% of businesses reported a decrease in new orders; currently, this problem affects 41%. The labor market situation remains relatively stable, and entrepreneurs' sentiments are calming down. 8% of entrepreneurs plan further reductions in employment, while at the end of March, 28% of companies planned layoffs. In turn, 7% want to increase the number of employees – these are the conclusions from the 4th wave of the survey on the condition of enterprises, conducted by the Polish Economic Institute and the Polish Development Fund."
http://pie.net.pl/z-28-proc-do-8-proc-spada-odsetek-firm-planujacych-zwolnienia-coraz-mniej-zamierza-tez-obnizac-pensje/

-- A SHALLOW AND TEMPORARY RECESSION - RESTORING FEBRUARY'S ACTIVITY WILL TAKE ABOUT 1.5 YEARS - JERZY HAUSNER IN AN INTERVIEW WITH PATRYCJA MACIEJEWICZ IN GW: "If we truly unfreeze the economy from July onwards, then in my opinion, the recession in Poland will amount to a few percent. In economic terms, it will be a shallow and temporary recession. Although, of course, it will be a big problem for many people and companies. Let's not expect the economy to immediately return to its February level. But it will start to turn upwards. And that's the most important thing, because we will see improvement relatively quickly. Restoring the economic activity level from February will take, in my opinion, about 1.5 years. However, we will need to make structural changes, such as digitalization and work organization. Not only to help the economy get out of the slump, but also to put it on a completely new growth trajectory."

-- HAUSNER ON PURGATORY: "But I believe that in the crisis, there is a chance for a breakthrough. This is a time for leaders, a time for visionaries, for brave people. It is a time for people who can mobilize others. And an economy that has had a long period of prosperity becomes fat, less agile. In this sense, changes in the economic climate and slowdowns are a period of a certain purgatory that is needed. Let's not waste this difficult time, because perhaps an easy one will not come again."
https://wyborcza.pl/7,155287,25946077,jerzy-hausner-w-imie-rzekomego-oslaniania-najslabszych-topimy.html

-- FIVE DAYS FOR SIGNATURES? - PAWEŁ WROŃSKI IN GW: "Today we obtained this document. It is a draft resolution by Marshal Elżbieta Witek regarding the scheduling of presidential elections in the Republic of Poland. It sets the election date for June 28, and the date of its issuance is June 12. This day would mark the beginning of the campaign. It would effectively last two weeks. This creates problems for the new candidate Rafał Trzaskowski (Civic Coalition). The election calendar assumes that the notification of the establishment of an electoral committee will take place on June 14. This means that within two days (12-14), the committee would have to submit a thousand signatures, as this is the condition for its registration. A bigger problem will arise on June 17. On this day, the committee is to submit 100,000 signatures to the National Electoral Commission (PKW). This means that there are five days to collect 100,000 signatures. Currently, signatures cannot be collected because the campaign has not yet been announced."
https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,25958732,piec-dni-na-zebranie-100-tys-podpisow-kiedy-wybory-prezydenckie.html



-- NITRAS AND KIERWIŃSKI ASK QUESTIONS AT CIESZYŃSKI'S CONFERENCE ABOUT SZUMOWSKI'S ASSETS, CIESZYŃSKI READS AN SMS FROM NEUMANN, GLIŃSKI ADMITS THAT TVP SERVED EVERY GOVERNMENT - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/05/20/

-- TOMASZ GRODZKI TELLS DGP ABOUT THE SENATE'S CONDITIONS FOR FASTER ADOPTION OF THE ELECTION LAW: "To ensure equal opportunities for all candidates, a period of 10-14 days should be maintained, assuming the Senate will proceed faster than 30 days. And we are working all the time, there are commissions on Thursday, we will consult with practitioners, including postmen. This is important because, despite voting in a mixed form, we expect a record number of people to take advantage of the postal voting option. Until now, the maximum was around 50,000 votes; now there will likely be more. From the Sejm to the Senate, we have moved the round table debates, within which we will try to reach a compromise acceptable to all political forces."

-- TO DGP'S QUESTION ABOUT THE NEXT WEEK: "It is possible, although I don't want to prejudge. Crucial are the commission meetings, where interesting opinions and judgments always appear. If 10-14 days are guaranteed for collecting signatures – and to achieve this, the Senate would have to send the law back to the Sejm by May 27-28 – then everything is possible."
https://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/polityka/artykuly/7708702,wybory-wybory-prezydenckie-pis-opozycja-warunki-senat.html

-- PO WANTS TO SHOW THAT TRZASKOWSKI IS THE STRONGEST GUY ON THE BLOCK - MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI IN RZ: "All of this is intended to maximally mobilize the dormant voters of the ruling party's opponents and show them that Trzaskowski is the strongest guy on the block. Attempts to repeat Donald Tusk's style, who in 2007 promised accountability after two years of PiS rule, are visible here. Such a tactic can lead to an increase in voter turnout."

-- HOŁOWNIA'S CAMPAIGN SERIOUSLY THREATENED - SZUŁDRZYŃSKI CONTINUES: "Trzaskowski's tactic strongly affects other competitors of Andrzej Duda. The biggest flow of electorates was observed between the supporters of KO and Szymon Hołownia. And it is his campaign that is most threatened at the moment. If he wants to fight for the second round, he must redefine his position. The most important battle before the first round will be fought between him and Trzaskowski."

-- FOR KOSINIAK'S VOTERS, TRZASKOWSKI IS TOO LEFT-WING - SZUŁDRZYŃSKI CONTINUES: "For many voters of the Polish People's Party (WKK), the mayor of Warsaw is too left-wing. And therefore, Robert Biedroń may have reasons for concern. The undecided voters will be Krzysztof Bosak's voters. Even before the pandemic, calculations showed that the number of voters for the PiS camp and anti-PiS was roughly the same. The national electorate could have tipped the scales towards victory. With its acquisition, Trzaskowski might have a much bigger problem in the second round than Andrzej Duda, although for some of the radical right, he is also too indistinct."
https://www.rp.pl/Wybory-prezydenckie-2020/305199892-Michal-Szuldrzynski-Najsilniejszy-chlopak-na-podworku.html

-- ANDRZEJ DUDA'S SILENCE - JACEK NIZINKIEWICZ IN RZ: "When the pacification of protesting entrepreneurs was taking place on the streets of the capital, the president remained silent. When more employees are leaving the Radio Trójka in protest against censorship, Andrzej Duda says nothing. He is also silent on the issue of the medical fund, which he announced by signing a law allocating PLN 2 billion to public media. It is also unknown what the position of the first citizen of the Republic of Poland is after the Sekielski brothers' film 'A Play of Hiding'. A year ago, after the first Sekielski film about scandals in the Catholic Church, Andrzej Duda loudly stated: 'Zero tolerance for pedophilia' and supported the establishment of a commission to combat it, which has not yet been created. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces also remained silent when the debate about transferring nuclear weapons from the USA to Poland at the expense of Germany flared up. Where does this silence come from? The change of PO's presidential candidate has introduced a new dynamic to the campaign. Social hardships resulting from the pandemic negatively affect support for the government. PiS has a problem with its presidential candidate, as acknowledged in numerous, unfortunately anonymous, conversations with party members. 'The campaign has stalled. Our candidate is waiting for the staff to present him with a new strategy. And he was failing the campaign even before the epidemic,' one minister tells us."
https://www.rp.pl/Rzecz-o-polityce/305199905-Jacek-Nizinkiewicz-Glosna-cisza-u-prezydenta.html

-- UNDER THE GUISE OF CULTURAL CHATTER, THE PROGRAM OF A RELIGIOUS DICTATORSHIP - PRZEMYSŁAW WITKOWSKI IN OKO ANALYZES BOSAK'S PROGRAM: "Krzysztof Bosak is trying to win the votes of the middle class and speak their language. However, the content has remained extremely right-wing. After analyzing the presidential program 'New Order,' we now know that Bosak and Konfederacja want fundamentalist authoritarianism in Poland."
https://oko.press/analizujemy-program-bosaka/

-- ON HOW AID PACKAGES DISTURB EU INTER-COUNTRY COMPETITIVENESS - TOMASZ BIELECKI IN DW: "The coronacrisis means the need for additional funds for the immediate fight against the pandemic (in the sanitary field), for supporting financial liquidity for companies, support for maintaining jobs (and for benefits), and for stimulating economic recovery after the shock caused by the plague. Thanks to the temporary relaxation of state aid rules for companies, EU countries have already obtained consent from the European Commission for subsidies or aid loans for entrepreneurs, totaling almost two trillion euros. However, as much as half of this amount goes to Germany, 17% to France, 15% to Italy, and 2.5% to Poland. While the heavily supported German economy can indirectly support Central Europe, which is strongly linked to German companies, Spain, for example, which cannot afford such large public aid, is raising concerns in Brussels about distortions in free competition and, therefore, the common EU market."
https://www.dw.com/pl/jaka-ue-powinna-wyj%C5%9B%C4%87-z-kryzysu/a-53503857

-- THREE DAYS HAVE PASSED AND WE HAVEN'T IMPOSED ANY OTHER TOPIC - JACEK GĄDEK QUOTES A PI'S POLITICIAN IN GAZETA.PL: "An important politician from the ruling camp: - Three days have passed and we haven't imposed any other topic. There's nothing new. Our losses could be significant, because this concerns the sphere of freedom, and people are sensitive to that. This is especially important for the unengaged voter."

-- ANOTHER PiS POLITICIAN: IT'S EMOTIONALIZING WARSAW, PEOPLE ARE THINKING ABOUT WORK, NOT THE HIT LIST - Gądek continues: "But opinions in the camp are divided. Another PiS politician, close to the presidential campaign: - A part of 'Warsaw' and 'Krakow' is excited about this. The elite interested in social and cultural life. In the flood of information, the topic will soon disappear on its own. And even if the Trójka affair takes up a lot of space in the media, it's still advised not to attach much political importance to it. - In the field, almost no one listens to Trójka and isn't interested in Marek Niedźwiedzki's hit list. People are thinking about work, holidays, school, money, not about a hit list on some unpopular radio station and Kazik's song."
https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25958632,sprawa-trojki-w-pis-podzial-straty-moga-byc-duze-zyje.html

-- SUDDENLY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SYMPATHETIC OR INDIFFERENT TO THE GOVERNMENT ARE STARTING TO THINK THAT, ACTUALLY, THEY ARE EMBARRASSING, THAT POWER HAS GONE TO THEIR HEADS - MICHAŁ SUTOWSKI IN KRYTYKA: "Is there anything to be excited about? Yes. The government is stumbling over its own feet and falling on its face due to the overzealousness of poorly intelligent people, and then the consistent sticking to their guns by people who would seem to be more sensible. Affairs of this kind, seemingly trivial, sometimes allow for 'changing the mood'; for a seemingly silly reason, millions of people who are indifferent or even sympathetic to the government suddenly start thinking that they are actually embarrassing; that we have long suspected this mess; that power has gone to their heads; and generally, what kind of cretins do they employ in such a serious institution."

-- TRÓJKA IS ONE OF THE STRONGEST VEHICLES OF COLLECTIVE NOSTALGIA - SUTOWSKI CONTINUES: "Whether this will happen this time, we will find out only ex post, after the second, third, and fourth polls. But it can happen. Why precisely in connection with Trójka – with which many listeners parted ways long ago? This radio station is simply one of the strongest vehicles of collective nostalgia in Poland. The second, and chronologically first besides Radio Maryja, medium that built a loyal community of listeners before it was a fashionable marketing strategy. Not only around broadcasts of charismatic radio personalities, like Beksiński, but the brand of the station itself."
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/felietony/michal-sutowski/lewaki-lapy-precz-od-trojki/

-- JACEK KARNOWSKI WRITES ABOUT THE BLOW TO PLURALISM, WHICH DISRUPTS THE COMFORT OF THINKING FOR OPPOSITION VOTERS: "This is understandable. Because it is precisely the real media pluralism, which we can enjoy only since 2015, that is the most easily discernible difference compared to the period before 2015. It is something that mobilizes the Third Republic camp particularly strongly. It is a phenomenon that hurts these people particularly badly. It hurts because it disrupts the comfort of thinking and the false conviction that they are right. It also deprives them of their artificially created sense of superiority. It makes it harder to humiliate opponents from the right. Finally, in a shocking way for the Third Republic, it levels the playing field in political combat. It prevents or at least hinders manipulation and special operations, which were easy as pie in times of monopoly."
https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/500940-nic-tak-nie-boli-ludzi-iii-rp-jak-prawdziwy-pluralizm-mediow

-- AFTER THE LOCKDOWN, WE WILL ALL BE FED UP WITH NETFLIX - FILM SCHOLAR MARCIN ADAMCZAK IN AN INTERVIEW WITH JAKUB MAJMUREK IN KRYTYKA: "Viewers confined solely to VOD have also probably started to notice that the non-series offering of platforms is not as rich as it might seem. That the libraries lack older and newer classics in particular, and at the same time, there are not many interesting premieres, or they are heavily scattered across competing platforms. So in the summer, when cinemas reopen, especially if they are not burdened by various tiring sanitary regulations and if they become pleasant places again, the pendulum might swing back just as well. Perhaps we will be oversaturated with the proverbial Netflix, tired of our companion of this rather peculiar spring of 2020."
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kultura/film/jakub-majmurek-marcin-adamczak-kinematografia-pandemia-wywiad/

-- THE GOVERNMENT HAS LOST CONTACT WITH SOCIETY'S EMOTIONS - JACEK PONIEDZIAŁEK in an interview with Przemysław Bollin on Onet: "Only that in every system there are idiotic, sycophantic, and fawning attitudes, but today in our country they have taken on caricatured and embarrassingly crude forms. All of this is irritating and frustrating, but on the other hand, the reaction of musicians and the resignation of leading journalists and presenters from Trójka gives hope. A drop wears away a stone, but with such a critical mass as today, it may provoke faster changes. Since Kaczyński's 'warcholstwo' (unruliness) and putting his pain above others has even outraged Kazik, who is sympathetic to PiS, it means that hot months await us. When the government fears artists or defends itself against their humor, it means it is rotten and suffers from a lack of distance, which is a function of faith in the correctness of its policies. The government has lost contact with society's emotions, and it always used to sense them perfectly. All that remains is for us to rejoice and observe this beautiful catastrophe."

-- PONIEDZIAŁEK ON POSTPONED PREMIERES: "The rehearsal process for two plays in which I was supposed to perform was very abruptly interrupted. These are 'Odyssey' based on Homer and Krall directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, and 'Return to Reims' by Didier Eribon directed by Katarzyna Kalwat. Krzysztof's premiere has been postponed by the theater to April 2021."

-- STATE AID FOR ARTISTS IS GROTESQUE - PONIEDZIAŁEK CONTINUES: "We have no clarity. We are relying on speculation and rumors, according to which something is supposed to happen next season. I've heard about September, but who knows if it won't be until October-November. Until then, we are effectively deprived of earnings, not counting our basic salaries. Everyone is in a different situation, but in most cases, without meager savings, it would be hard to survive. Almost everyone has a mortgage, and for now, banks have eased up a bit, but from October, full installments will have to be paid. The problem is that we don't know from what, because a basic theater salary won't be enough. The near future of theaters is uncertain. Will we be able to play as often, will the audience come to the theater, how many seats will they be able to occupy, how much will a ticket cost? Public theaters are subsidized and do not live solely from ticket sales, but without these revenues, their budgets will collapse. We are an industry that is closed the fastest and opened the slowest. Always, whether it's a pandemic or mourning, we get hit the hardest. State aid for artists is grotesque."

-- THE BAD ATTITUDE TOWARDS CREATORS BEGAN DURING THE PLATFORM ERA - PONIEDZIAŁEK CONTINUES: "On the one hand, I understand that culture and art are higher needs that are met later. On the other hand, and this is not sufficiently emphasized, the broadly understood artistic industry generates 3.5% of GDP! Meanwhile, we are perceived as a bunch of freeloaders and parasites, because such comments can be read under articles and posts about financing culture and the earnings of people working in this industry. The bad attitude towards creators began during the PO government, and now under the 'good change,' we are dealing with contempt and hatred towards the so-called elites, incited by its politicians and publicists. We are relegated to the group of burdens, ignoring our gigantic contribution to the budget. Greater than, for example, mining. Every government trembles before the anger of miners; in us, they see only spoiled, loud brats who constantly complain and give nothing."

-- WHICH POLISH PRODUCT AND BRAND IS SO RECOGNIZABLE WORLDWIDE? - PONIEDZIAŁEK: "I would like to ask all those who begrudge us every penny, which Polish product or brand is recognizable worldwide? A few would probably be found, but even then, most people have no idea where they come from. Meanwhile, the whole world from California to Kamchatka and Tokyo has heard of Penderecki, Miłosz, Lem, Polański, Skolimowski, Żuławski, Wajda, Górecki, Szymborska, Tokarczuk, Mrożek, Słobodzianek, Lupa, Warlikowski, Jarzyna, Kleczewska, Klata, Witkowski, Althamer, Sapkowski, Komasa, Orliński, Treliński, Pawlikowski, Kulig, Kwapień, Kurzak, Nergal, creators of several computer games... The list is endless."

-- I FEAR FOR THE FUTURE OF SOCIETY, I AGREE WITH HOUELLEBECQ THAT IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE - PONIEDZIAŁEK CONTINUES: "I fear for the future of this society. I agree with Michel Houellebecq, who stated that nothing will change, it will only get worse. Governments will be even more populist and will deprive us of privacy and freedom even more under the pretext of security, the rich will get richer, the poor poorer, and post-truth will be more post-true. More hate, more deepening chaos, increasingly brutal tweets, canceled press conferences by Trump when he doesn't like the questions. The gap between reality and its manipulated image will widen. The only outcome will be confusion."
https://kultura.onet.pl/wywiady-i-artykuly/jacek-poniedzialek-pomoc-panstwa-dla-artystow-jest-groteskowa-wywiad/r2l32b2


-- PHOTO. Luca Giordano, Perseus turning Phineus and his followers into stone, National Gallery in London.

Luca Giordano played a significant role in the development of monumental Baroque painting. He created many frescoes, including: in the dome of S. Brigida in Naples. In the National Museum in Warsaw, there are works attributed to him or his school, 'Prometheus' and 'The Communion of the Apostles'.

Perseus, after saving Andromeda and killing the sea monster, burst into the hall during the wedding ceremony, fighting for his woman. Enraged Phineus, whose woman had been taken away, struggles here with Perseus holding the severed head of Medusa, whose gaze gradually turns Phineus's followers to stone. The scene is full of dynamics and tension, and the faces of the combatants are filled with hatred.

-- BIRTHDAYS: Aleksander Hall, Marzena Okła-Drewnowicz, Magdalena Sobkowiak, Katarzyna Mrzygłocka.