-- SASIN ON NO ONE BEING SECOND-CLASS, THE PRIME MINISTER ON RUSSIAN THREAT AND AMERICAN PRESENCE, BOSAK CRITICIZING ECONOMIC SHUTDOWNS, HOŁOWNIA ON THE CHURCH AS A PIS SATELLITE – 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/06/16/ -- SE REPORTS ON A STATE OF EMERGENCY TO STOP TRZASKOWSKI – THE ARTICLE IS PROMOTED ON THE TABLOID'S FRONT PAGE: “Elections 2020. We know the secret plan of PiS's leader! Jarosław Kaczyński (71). Unsure of Andrzej Duda's (48) victory, he is considering various political scenarios that would allow for the current president's re-election. - When Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska was running, we were certain of a first-round victory. Now, with Trzaskowski appearing, we fear we might lose. I don't rule out that a state of emergency will be introduced at the last moment to postpone the elections – notes our informant.” -- SE FURTHER REPORTS ON PiS'S CONTINGENCY PLAN: “Chaos, constantly changing political strategies, lack of effective cooperation between the party headquarters, campaign staff, and the Presidential Palace – these are just a few of the many problems that have been accompanying Andrzej Duda's campaign for some time. - There are supposedly poll results that don't guarantee Duda a second-round victory, but rather Trzaskowski – a prominent PiS politician tells us. As "SE" learns, Jarosław Kaczyński also has a contingency plan in case Trzaskowski starts to gain ground in the polls - This could be the introduction of a state of emergency and the postponement of the elections. The situation in Silesia related to coronavirus is dire, and with an even greater intensity of the epidemic, introducing a state of emergency would be justified. We are waiting – emphasizes our source.” https://www.se.pl/wiadomosci/polityka/tajny-plan-kaczynskiego-tym-chca-zatrzymac-trzaskowskiego-aa-A2wZ-eJj7-xMcB.html -- RZ WRITES ABOUT POLISH ANTISEMITISM – BASED ON A REPORT FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: “Demons like to return or find new incarnations, as evidenced by the examples of modern antisemitism in the West. In France, it is a fallout from the Middle East conflict between Arabs and Israel. In Germany, it is the effect of resurgent nationalism. There are no attacks on synagogues in Poland, like in Halle or American Pittsburgh. People are not dying because of antisemitism. There are only words. But even more so, we must guard against them, remember the past, and not lose our sensitivity to the problem of antisemitism. Because a great national sin can return. Let us guard against it as best we can.” https://www.rp.pl/Komentarze/306159918-Chrabota-Antysemityzm-demon-ktory-wraca.html -- THIS IS AN EPIDEMIC-EMOTIONAL ROULETTE – RAFAŁ MATYJA IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAŁ SUTOWSKI IN KRYTYKA POLITYCZNA: “A large part of the outcome of the elections, which were supposed to take place on June 28 and July 12, is an epidemic-emotional roulette. Every campaign is based on events, on random mistakes and plot twists, but here a "player" has appeared that is usually absent – the virus. The scale of the pandemic and the social effects of the two-month lockdown introduce a significant turnout risk. We don't know how many people, hearing the number of infections on the radio, will say that it's too risky to go vote. How many will turn back from the queue to the polling station: I'm not going to stand in line for an hour! And how many will think that an envelope will still come to them by mail... -- WE MAY HAVE SURPRISES – AN EXCERPT FROM THE CONVERSATION WITH MATYJA AND SUTOWSKI: “- The precise calculations of the campaign teams can easily go down the drain, and we may have various surprises. Commentators look at electorates as rational players, calculating, but there are not many such well-informed and rational voters. Journalists ask: and how will Trzaskowski's speech in Poznań affect voters... - How? - Not at all. Nonsense, teary eyes, various oddities resonate widely, not the subtleties of the message. And emotions. What people think on June 28 about the epidemic situation, how they assess the technical conditions of these elections, whether they will have to stand in line... that will decide. -- THE PRESIDENT IS HELPING THE OPPOSITION AFTER ALL – MATYJA CONTINUES: “The opposition's hope is that a portion of the president's electorate will say – I will never vote for this Trzaskowski, Hołownia, or Kosiniak-Kamysz, but for Duda... no longer. In this matter, the president is increasingly helping the opposition.” -- CONVENIENCE AND INCOMPETENCE – MATYJA CONTINUES: “We are wrongly treating PiS – for some, it's even a dangerous fixation – as a monolith managed by a brilliant strategist. Yet, it is a formation subject to various political laws. For instance, a certain authoritarian melody that can be heard in the party's rhetoric and its media may not be the result of cold electoral calculation, but rather aligns with two strongly present traits among PiS activists. Convenience and incompetence. Some PiS officials would like to rule authoritatively for the simple reason that going to a press conference where someone asks them a difficult question is risky. They would have to prepare, demonstrate knowledge... Of course, there are also those who are not afraid – Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz goes to EKG on TOK FM radio or to TVN and calmly answers substantive questions there. Nevertheless, many high-ranking politicians of this party simply cannot imagine meeting with critical journalists, even at a press conference. Not to mention a parliamentary committee session, where they would have to convince the opposition of something.” -- PiS CANNOT MOVE BEYOND 2015 – MATYJA CONTINUES: “Just as PO, after eight years in power, as a party of fat cats, could not do anything new in Komorowski's campaign, so PiS – it seems – after five years cannot move beyond what has worked so far.” -- PEOPLE SAW SOMEONE IN TRZASKOWSKI WHO WANTED TO FIGHT – MATYJA IN KRYTYKA POLITYCZNA: “I saw something similar to when signatures were being collected for Trzaskowski in 2019, when people spontaneously organized to support the opposition in some way. These 1.5 million signatures collected for Trzaskowski are not just the result of the apparatus's efficiency, but of a certain social emotion. People support the Civic Platform's candidate not out of love for the party, but because they want a candidate who will fight for them. They saw in Trzaskowski someone who wanted to, who believed in victory.” -- THERE IS NO NEW POST-PANDEMIC NARRATIVE YET, THE ELECTIONS ARE STILL IN THE PREVIOUS ERA – MATYJA CONTINUES: “Without success. And it's not their fault, because I'll repeat: this narrative is not yet in public circulation. Due to the state of awareness, the elections will take place, in a sense, in the previous era; we will rely on decisions, motivations, and political imagination from before the lockdown. The storytellers of this new narrative will appear after the elections.” -- POLITICIANS ARE FIGHTING AN OLD WAR – MATYJA IN CONVERSATION WITH SUTOWSKI: “Everything fits within the framework of the old war: the opposition considers PiS incompetent, full of empty phrases, incapable of anything, and moreover, thieving. Or even insane. The thesis about the ruling camp as the Olsen gang didn't emerge during the fight against coronavirus, but much earlier! When CBOS researched the assessment of the government's actions depending on party affiliation, it turned out that PO voters know in advance that the government is hopeless, and PiS voters – that it is the best possible. Cognitive dissonances hardly exist. So, politicians are fighting an old war…” https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/rafal-matyja-michal-sutowski-wybory-prezydenckie-2020/ -- PiS HAS NO IDEA HOW TO SELL DUDU TO VOTERS AFTER 5 YEARS – ANDRZEJ STANKIEWICZ IN TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY: “PiS has no idea how to sell Duda to voters after 5 years of joint rule. While in the previous presidential campaign Duda was carried by a wave of social promises, now, with a hole in the budget, the president can promise nothing new. In this situation, PiS is selling him by reminding voters of what he has given them – including 500 plus and the reduction of the retirement age. And it scares them with the Civic Platform's government from a decade ago. Duda's labeling the PO government as "anti-Polish" during his speech in Opole is a clear crossing of the boundaries of political struggle.” -- STANKIEWICZ ON THE ANALOGY FROM THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: “Threatening with the LGBT card signed by Trzaskowski as the mayor of the capital allowed PiS to outclass the opposition in last year's European elections. And this in difficult circumstances, for example, shortly after the Sekielski brothers' film "Only Don't Tell Anyone," which was troublesome for PiS. In that campaign, they skillfully cast the PO, PSL, Nowoczesna, and SLD coalition in the role of supporters of LGBT – presented by Jarosław Kaczyński as "sexualizing children." It was certain that when Trzaskowski entered the ring, PiS would once again reach for the big guns.” -- PLAYING ACCORDING TO PiS'S SCORE – STANKIEWICZ CONTINUES: “Hardcore PO supporters react with fury because, in their opinion, this is playing exactly according to the script prepared by PiS, calculated to polarize the electorate and create divisions within the opposition.” -- VOTERS ARE EASIER TO SCARE THAN TO SOOTHE – STANKIEWICZ'S CONCLUSION IN TP: “Who will be more effective? It is easier to scare voters than to soothe them. Especially chairman Kaczyński can scare like no one else.” https://www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/pulapka-na-tecze-163742 -- THE PRESIDENT IS BORDERING ON THE GROTESQUE – JACEK NIZINKIEWICZ IN RZ: “The president, forced to explain that he didn't say what he said, borders on the grotesque. And ridiculousness can be deadly for a politician. Duda contradicts himself from 2015. In the previous campaign, he focused on a positive message, convincing even some LGBT circles. Today, the president explains that he is not homophobic and may lose a group of voters he gained then. And it's not even certain that he will gain new ones. Because who wants to identify with an intolerant politician?” https://www.rp.pl/Analizy/306159914-Nizinkiewicz-Prezydent-gluchy--na-Mariana-Turskiego.html -- PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING – RPO ADAM BODNAR IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAŁ OKOŃSKI IN TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY: “In my work, I see very clearly that specific people suffer from the condemnation of sin or "ideology." They attempt suicide, suffer psychologically, are sometimes physically persecuted, and emigrate.” -- BODNAR ON HOSPICES PRIMARILY BEING RUN BY CHURCH INSTITUTIONS – ARE WE NOT ADDRESSING THIS BECAUSE IT'S NOT PROGRESSIVE ENOUGH? – ASKS THE RPO: “In the interview, the Ombudsman criticizes not only the ruling right but also centrist politicians; he also talks about the left, which in his assessment does not address many basic issues of exclusion. 'Have you never wondered why it is primarily the Church that deals with hospices in Poland?' he asks. 'When people want to die in dignity, we don't address this issue because it's not progressive enough? It's good that we are fighting against precarious employment and the precariat, but the most excluded people in Poland, living in extreme poverty or facing homelessness, are primarily cared for by church institutions.” https://www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/na-potepianiu-ideologii-cierpia-ludzie-163674 -- DUDA'S CAMPAIGN IS GETTING DIRTIER – MICHAŁ DANIELEWSKI IN OKO: “Andrzej Duda's campaign is getting dirtier: TVP has resorted to antisemitism to attack Rafał Trzaskowski. The goal? Voters of Konfederacja. Mothers of homosexual individuals are appealing to the president to stop attacking their children.” -- NEWS ANTISEMITISM IS MEANT TO DISCREDIT BOSAK – DANIELEWSKI CONTINUES: “The main broadcast of TVP's news program, the armed wing of Andrzej Duda's campaign, has targeted Konfederacja voters and Krzysztof Bosak. The aim is to weaken the candidate from the right, even more extreme than Duda, in the first round and to proceed to a runoff with Rafał Trzaskowski in a relatively comfortable position. If Duda's campaign team manages to win over Bosak's voters now, and if, with a bit of luck, they don't alienate more moderate voters from the head of state, then Duda's final victory and second term will become much more realistic. Jacek Kurski (TVP) and Adam Bielan (Duda's campaign) have apparently decided that the main vehicle for this strategy will be playing the antisemitic card, and judging by the TVP Wiadomości broadcast on June 15, the TVP news program diligently fulfilled the political instruction. Antisemitic propaganda filled a significant portion of the program.” https://oko.press/od-homofobii-do-antysemityzmu-propaganda-na-rzecz-dudy/ -- A TURNING POINT IS NEAR, HOŁOWNIA DEFEATS DUDA IN THE SECOND ROUND AND TRZASKOWSKI IS CLOSE: “Andrzej Duda is practically certain to make it to the second round of the presidential elections. However, the good news for the incumbent head of state ends there. In the electoral runoff, Duda weakens with each week. The current president should be concerned that he is losing to Szymon Hołownia in the second round, but the real problem is that Rafał Trzaskowski has already almost completely closed the gap with him.” https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,26033915,moment-przelomu-jest-blisko-holownia-pokonuje-dude-w-drugiej.html -- IWONA SZPALA WRITES IN GW THAT RESEARCH INDICATES LOW MOBILIZATION OF DUDA'S ELECTORATE: “In Civic Platform, they say they are not surprised by the strategy chosen by PiS campaign strategists. Both parties conduct research. Those that PO has indicate that two weeks before the first round, Andrzej Duda is still the leader in the polls. He has serious advantages: he has been campaigning for months, has the sympathetic public TVP, and larger funds (Trzaskowski, who joined the candidates in May, is entitled to a more modest budget). However, the ratings do not satisfy Duda's campaign staff. PiS's electorate is insufficiently mobilized.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,26031483,alert-w-pis-trzeba-przestraszyc-wyborcow.html -- DUDA SCARES WITH GAYS LIKE THE PZPR AND THE SECURITY SERVICE IN 1976 – PAWEŁ WROŃSKI IN GW: “Andrzej Duda scares Poles with gays and lesbians and compares "LGBT ideology" to Bolshevism. Nothing new. The communist Security Service and the Polish United Workers' Party already scared Poles with gays, although of course, back then no one would have thought of comparing them to Bolsheviks.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,26035310,pis-jak-pzpr-straszy-polakow-gejami-powtorka-z-historii-z-1976.html -- VULGAR WORDS FROM A PiS ACTIVIST DURING SZYDŁO'S RALLY – GAZETA KRAKOWSKA FRONT PAGE: “The appearance of people from the LGBT community at a rally supporting Andrzej Duda in the center of Tarnów on Sunday disconcerted local PiS activists. Photojournalist Tadeusz Koniarz, who was covering the event, claims that one of them lost his temper to such an extent that he attempted to hinder his work and called him a "fucking snitch," which was recorded by the microphone of a local television station. Former PiS candidate for mayor of Tarnów, Janusz Gładysz, initially denied such words, but a few hours later he confessed and apologized.” https://gazetakrakowska.pl/tarnow-podczas-przemowienia-beaty-szydlo-na-wiecu-znany-dzialacz-pis-utrudnial-prace-fotoreporterowi-nazwal-go-pierd-kapusiem/ar/c15-15026750 -- LGBT IS A MARGINAL PROBLEM FOR FAMILIES, IT DIVERTED ATTENTION FROM WHAT CONSTITUTES A REAL EXISTENTIAL THREAT – PIOTR TRUDNOWSKI IN KLUB JAGIELLOŃSKI: “I consider the decision to politically polarize on this issue to be erroneous for two reasons – the first is tactical, the second fundamental. Tactically, I consider focusing the political dispute around a worldview-civilizational conflict to be counterproductive in the long run. Fundamentally – I argue that the excessive emphasis on threats from the LGBT movement disproportionately highlights a problem that is marginal from the perspective of Polish families. It thus diverts attention from what truly poses an existential threat to them in the next few decades.” -- FOCUSING THE DISCUSSION ON LGBT MEANS WE DON'T NOTICE MORE IMPORTANT THREATS TO THE FAMILY – TRUDNOWSKI CONTINUES: “The right's focus on this issue means that we do not notice the real, fundamental, even existential threats to the traditional family model in Poland in public debate broadly, and in political-social discussion more narrowly.” -- "TINDERING" AMONG THE THREE MAIN THREATS ACCORDING TO TRUDNOWSKI: “However, the 'Tindering' of relationships is the newest and most symbolic trend, but we have been experiencing a crisis of marital stability in Poland for decades, and in recent years it seems to be accelerating. (...) No matter how we look for it – it is difficult to consider "LGBT ideology" as the cause of even a statistically noticeable percentage of disintegrating families.” -- POLARIZATION BETWEEN GIRLS AND BOYS – ANOTHER PROBLEM ACCORDING TO TRUDNOWSKI: “It would be bad if this polarization were limited to political sympathies. However, there is much to indicate that a chasm of misunderstanding is growing between girls and boys on the level of values, sensitivities, and aspirations. This is a powerful threat, because in the long run it will mean that young people... will have increasing difficulty finding a life partner for themselves.” -- TRUDNOWSKI ON SMARTPHONE CULTURE: “It turns out that in the generation "raised on smartphones," acceptance of extramarital sex, as well as sex at a teenage age, has noticeably increased. However, the problem does not lie here, as readers who equate conservatism with puritanism might imagine. Because at the same time, these same respondents, despite higher approval for such attitudes than before... have sex less often than representatives of older generations actually engage in it at a teenage and young adult age!” https://klubjagiellonski.pl/2020/06/15/coming-out-homofoba-trzy-zagrozenia-dla-polskiej-rodziny-wazniejsze-niz-ideologia-lgbt/ -- AMERICA HAS BECOME A NEGATIVE EXAMPLE – RADEK SIKORSKI IN CONVERSATION WITH GRZEGORZ SROCZYŃSKI: “Because I look with horror at what has happened to the United States. This country was once a model of liberal democracy. And today, the U.S. Congress has ceased to be an arbiter of public good; business has taken control of it, laws are often passed dictated by the largest corporations and the wealthiest citizens. To become a congressman, you have to raise at least seven million dollars for a campaign. And that every two years! If we add to this very unequal access to education and healthcare, then America is slowly becoming a negative example for a liberal. Reagan had a saying that the most dangerous words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." I used to think so too and repeated those Reagan golden thoughts. And today I see that true economic success, which creates lasting prosperity, not just dishonest wealth for a handful, depends on the quality of public institutions, on a fair and accessible justice system, on officials who competently implement regulations, on financial supervision that prevents pyramids and fraud. We should stop looking only at one indicator – GDP growth – and start measuring economic success with indicators of social well-being. They say a lot. The greatest citizen satisfaction occurs where a competitive economic system functions in conjunction with high-quality public services. Accessible to all citizens.” -- SIKORSKI ON EMOTIONS TOWARDS BANKERS: “Yes. I had similar emotions when I watched it. Before the financial crisis in the USA and Europe, I thought more or less like this: well, they earn their millions, get bonuses, trade in derivatives, watch charts, they must know something I don't, so maybe they deserve that money. And suddenly it turned out they didn't know shit. They were like children in the fog. So what are they getting bonuses for? I also started asking myself that question. Why should the value of their work be five hundred or a thousand times greater than that of a teacher or doctor? It turned out that the taxpayer and investor bore the risk, not them. So why does a banker earn not ten or twenty times more, but a thousand times more? I believe the proportions have been skewed. And you don't have to be a socialist to say that. In ultra-liberal Switzerland, a few years ago, there was a referendum – it lost, but only slightly – in which the question was whether to introduce a legal maximum salary. So that a CEO couldn't earn more than twelve times the average salary in the company.” -- SIKORSKI ON MOCKING THE POOR FOR VOTING FOR PARTIES OFFERING SOCIAL WELFARE: “If a rich person votes for a party that promises them a low flat tax, you can draw a caricature in the same way, only instead of a kneeling village grandma, to whom a politician waves 500 złoty, there would be a man in an expensive suit kneeling, to whom someone waves a tax cut law. Bolsonaro or Trump bought part of big business because they promised billions in tax cuts.” -- THE RICH GOT RICHER, AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM – SIKORSKI CONTINUES: “Do you know what? We have all been living for 12 years in an artificial economic reality created by the fight against the financial crisis. And now, due to the costs of COVID-19, it will be turbocharged. Everything we are talking about would be different if we had normal market interest rates, because the zero rates maintained by central banks have caused those who once owned real estate in London or Paris to become multi-millionaires today. And those who live from work have relatively fallen behind. These mountains of money – cheap loans – primarily fuel the rich, because they benefit the most from them. And here is the distortion of Piketty; he too weakly considers that inequality partly results from the policies of central banks, which are injecting more and more liquidity into the financial system, which has a colossal side effect in the form of rising asset prices: real estate and stocks. The rich, who own the most of these assets, become even richer. That's the problem.” -- SHOULD SOCIAL WELFARE BE WITHOUT LIMITS? – SIKORSKI ASKS SROCZYŃSKI: “And in the US, the consequences are clear as day when there isn't. But should social welfare be without limits? You asked me about the group of so-called working poor. Do you know how they feel? They work three contract jobs, and others don't work and have. Talk to them about social spending, what their attitude is towards it. I agree with you that inequalities have exceeded reasonable limits. Do you agree with me that social welfare should also have some limits, that it cannot be 12,000 złoty, but – let's say – a maximum of two national averages? Because for what reason should an unemployed and fictitiously divorced woman receive more than a family where both work?” https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,26029192,radek-sikorski-nie-kocham-juz-thatcher-nie-cytuje-reagana.html -- THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD ORDER IS FADING AWAY, A SEARCH FOR THE LIBERAL CENTER IS UNDERWAY – JAROSŁAW KUISZ IN KULTURA LIBERALNA: “Indeed, ideological debates between countries wander through strange paths. The conservative Murray, a critic of ideological dogmatism, arrogance, and unwillingness to forgive, would have to harshly criticize many a politician associated with the current ruling camp in Poland. Theoretically, PiS, which officially fights liberals, simultaneously practically adopts an agenda that Murray criticized on the... far-left. This looks like complete conceptual confusion. However, if we remember that les extrêmes se touchent [fr. extremes touch], after reading the texts of Murray and Gray, one thing becomes clear. In the current conditions, when a certain post-Cold War world order seems to be fading into the past, a feverish search for the liberal center is underway. In every country, as is clearly visible, it will have its own specifics. In Poland, no one will do this work for us.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/06/16/liberalizm-2020-jak-uratowac-liberalizm/ -- CULTURAL POLICY IS REDUCED TO THE DEVASTATION OF INSTITUTIONS – KATARZYNA KASIA IN KL: “I am convinced that cultural policy should be pursued, and is indeed a matter of utmost importance. However, what is happening in this area under the rule of Law and Justice is not based on any strategy. It is the appropriation of successive institutions, which ends in their devastation. The implementation of cultural policy should not consist of aggressively pushing only the correct henchmen into directorial positions, but of supporting what is most valuable, sensitivity-building, revealing, and interesting in contemporary culture. It is worth drawing on the achievements of Polish art, including contemporary art, for example, as a group of artists did on May 6, 2020, in protest against organizing postal elections, they recreated Tadeusz Kantor's famous 1967 performance. For their action, which was in compliance with all pandemic regulations, they were fined 10,000 zlotys each. Fortunately, thanks to public protest, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station withdrew the fines.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/06/16/polityka-kulturalna-pis-u-wymiana-kadr-slabnace-instytucje/ -- TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS WILL BE RAISED, NOT ON SYMBOLIC KULCZYKS – ŁUKASZ ORBITOWSKI IN CONVERSATION WITH JAKUB BODZIONY IN KULTURA LIBERALNA: “Even if this return to normality is happening, we are returning as if from a war – beaten, wounded, and with empty pockets. So now, I believe, there will be further belt-tightening and a worsening of the situation in various areas. I don't think that companies that have lowered people's salaries will suddenly decide to restore them to their pre-pandemic levels. I would expect them to raise our taxes. And it won't be that they will raise them for the symbolic Kulczyks, but they will hit the middle class.” -- ORBITOWSKI ON THE MENTAL STATE OF THE AUTHORITIES FIGHTING AGAINST A SONG: “It's horrible, but it doesn't matter. Imagine the mental state of any authority that fights against a song. Something that anyone can turn on, that can be sung during a demonstration. Something you can turn on on your phone, hum along to. It resembles fighting a swarm of bees with a howitzer. This is another thing I cannot comprehend, and its only explanation is the fear of someone's anger. That I have to take down this song immediately, regardless of anything, because otherwise, the chairman will find out and will be furious.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/06/16/artysta-glodny-nie-jest-plodny/ -- PHOTO. Wounded Angel – a painting by Finnish symbolist Hugo Simberg from 1903. The painting is considered one of the most famous works of Finnish painting. Their dark clothing and somber faces contrast with the brightness and vulnerability emanating from the angel, depicted as a fair-haired girl in a white dress. The angel has a bandage on its head, and its white wings are stained with blood. Although it is unknown precisely what happened to the titular wounded figure, the mood of the painting does not seem as sad or dramatic as one might expect. Some interpretations of the painting therefore focus on these events, suggesting that the wounded angel could have been the ailing author himself. Others saw national symbolism in it, as the national romanticism movement was very popular in Finland at the turn of the century. The Finnish-Swedish artist repeatedly emphasized his Finnish identity, which is why the angel was interpreted as a symbol of Finland oppressed by Russia. Perhaps it was for this reason that the Finns chose "Wounded Angel" as their favorite painting when Ateneum asked the public to choose a national painting in 2006. https://niezlasztuka.net/o-sztuce/hugo-simberg-artysta-z-piekla-i-nieba-rodem/ -- BIRTHDAYS: Witold Gadomski, Marian Piłka.