-- 11 YEARS AGO RZECZPOSPOLITA UNCOVERED THE GAMBLING SCANDAL. -- 6 YEARS AGO EWA KOPACZ DELIVERED HER EXPOSÉ. -- MARCIN MELLER APPOINTED EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF WP - reported Nikola Bochyńska from Wirtualne Media on Twitter. -- KAROLINA WIGURA TURNS 40! -- 10 POLITICAL TOPICS OF OCTOBER ACCORDING TO MICHAŁ OLECH: https://300polityka.pl/news/2020/10/01/10-politycznych-tematow-pazdziernika/ -- SOPOT IN THE RED ZONE, SCHETYNA OUTLINES A POLITICAL PLAN FOR PO, SASIN ON KACZYŃSKI'S POLITICAL ROLE IN THE GOVERNMENT - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2020/10/01/ -- VON DER LEYEN PUT ME IN MY PLACE – BY DEMANDING A LIBERTINE VISION OF FAMILY ON THE KNIFE'S EDGE – WRITES ROKITA IN A FELIETON FOR TEOLOGIA POLITYCZNA: “Now, the theoretical conservative and Christian democrat, the wife of a German aristocrat and mother of seven children – Ursula von der Leyen, in a sense, put me in my place. In her programmatic speech, she put on the knife's edge the demand to recognize an anti-religious and libertine vision of family as a universally binding norm in Europe, backed by the rigor of legal sanctions. Some time ago, such a thing would have been unimaginable to me. I wouldn't have understood why overturning the age-old and at the same time simple rules of family life, rooted in religion, should suddenly become a political goal? And what's more, conditioning the success of the European integration project, thus demanding something like an EU ultimatum, accompanied by political threats.” -- THE MORAL RISK OF LIVING WITHIN A PAGAN UNIVERSALIST EMPIRE, BUT THE EMPIRE ITSELF AS A POLITICAL ENTITY IS PROBABLY STILL WORTH DEFENDING – ROKITA'S PHILOSOPHICAL CONCLUSION: “Paul of Tarsus must have also valued that universalism, as he proudly reminds us that he is a Roman citizen to improve his legal situation and demands a trial according to pagan law. But the most interesting here is Augustine, who, although he lived in the Theodosian era, had to mentally confront the legacy of pagan universalism. He even concluded that politically it could flourish entirely without Christian virtues, because God wanted to reveal to the world the truth that faith, hope, and love are not necessary in the natural order, but only in the supernatural. Incidentally, Gilson convincingly demonstrates this (in a book recently published by 'TP'), referring to Augustine's letter written in 412, two years after Alaric sacked Rome. So, life within a pagan universalist empire undoubtedly carries moral risks and presents serious difficulties for a Christian. But at the same time, life here is more decent than anywhere else. And the empire itself, as a political entity, is probably still worth defending.” https://teologiapolityczna.pl/jan-rokita-byc-rzymskim-obywatelem-felieton-1 -- KACZYŃSKI HAS RAISED THE BAR FOR ZIOBRO IN STARTING CONFLICTS, SO THAT IT IS NOT SO EASY AND WITHOUT PUNISHMENT – RAFAŁ MATYJA IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAŁ SUTOWSKI IN KRYTYKA POLITYCZNA: “But Zbigniew Ziobro is precisely an element of external reality for Kaczyński that needs to be dealt with. And he has succeeded in raising the bar for Ziobro in initiating further conflicts, so that it is not so easy and so unpunished, so that, in short, Ziobro is aware that even minor insubordination risks expulsion from the coalition and loss of resources.” -- GETTING RID OF THE PROBLEM WITH ZIOBRO INCREASES KACZYŃSKI'S ABILITY TO FIGHT THE OPPOSITION – CONTINUES MATYJA: “If you were to ask whether getting rid of the problem with Ziobro increases Kaczyński's ability to fight the opposition, then undoubtedly yes. It's clear that he prefers to confront it rather than be bothered with Gowin or Ziobro. He considers disputes with them a waste of time, because for that he has the political camp that won the elections, so as not to waste time on internal clashes.” -- TOO EARLY TO ANALYZE THE SOCIAL EFFECTS – CONTINUES MATYJA: “In any case, it makes no sense to discuss the electoral consequences of, for example, the recent crisis in the United Right today, because it is too early. I dream of a study that would show us changes in polls divided into three groups of respondents: very interested in politics, moderately interested, and indifferent, of course, not by asking directly, but with some intelligent control questions. Then we would see in black and white how few people from the least informed group noticed any serious shifts.” -- PIS VOTERS HAVE NOWHERE TO SHIFT THEIR VOTE – MATYJA FURTHER STATES TO SUTOWSKI: “It could be a new movement or party, it could be a new leader, but there must always be a track along which the change of mood will go. The best is the possibility of shifting the vote. And at this moment, PiS voters have nowhere to shift their vote. Some may be completely disappointed and stay home, some voters in the countryside may try to vote for PSL again, but it is difficult to expect any mass movement.” -- THE BEST-INFORMED GROUP IS HALF A MILLION VOTERS – MATYJA FURTHER STATES: “We have 30 million eligible voters in the country, of whom 20 million exercise this right, and this first, best-informed group is half a million, maybe a million, but that's an optimistic estimate. Even if we assume that everyone buys only one opinion weekly, the total number sold will not be impressive. I don't include here all those who buy 'Fakt' and 'Super Express', because I don't know if they read from it what the dispute between Kaczyński and Ziobro was actually about.” -- EVEN POLITICALLY INTERESTED AUDIENCES ARE TIRED OF THE EPIDEMIC TOPIC – MATYJA: “No, it's not a lack of hearing, it's precisely social hearing. Even audiences interested in politics are tired of the epidemic topic, and besides, for a very long time it was thought that it would pass without consequences, or that a second wave might occur with the flu season… And if I told you on May 5th that in September there would be 1500 infections per day, but that it wouldn't be the number one topic, you would be surprised, wouldn't you?” -- FRAGMENT OF SUTOWSKI AND MATYJA'S CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW WE OVERESTIMATE THE GENERAL INTEREST IN POLITICS: “And do you know the current results of the football league? - I know the ones from the mid-90s. With today's ones, it's worse. - You see, and they are in the same news broadcasts that you listen to every day. - They escape you, although you were interested in football at some point. And today they are not important to you. And if I asked about the speedway league, you would probably have trouble naming the teams. - Polonia Piła, Apator Toruń, Unia Tarnów… But that was also 25 years ago. - And now it's easier for you to empathize with people who don't listen to the latest political news.” -- THERE IS NO SENSE OF STATE COMPROMISE – MATYJA FURTHER STATES: “For now, the course of the epidemic has not significantly violated Poles' perception of whether the government is ruling well or poorly. We know that elsewhere it was very bad, here it was relatively calm, and even if someone was in quarantine and saw that the state was not functioning particularly well, that actions were increasingly superficial – there is no general sense that it has thoroughly compromised itself.” -- THE EXTREME POSITION OF THE CHURCH ON LGBT IS COMPLETELY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE – MATYJA TELLS SUTOWSKI: “Polarization will result in extreme anti-LGBT views being treated poorly in debate, even if ad hoc flags on monuments may cause controversy. But nothing will beat the aggressive slogans of Archbishop Jędraszewski, resolutions of some local governments, or the concept of blocking LGBT demonstrations. Catholic circles have so far crossed the boundaries of decency that their position will be completely counterproductive.” -- GENERATIONAL CHANGES AND THE EVOLUTION OF SENSITIVITY MEAN A CRISIS OF WORLDVIEW ATTITUDES ON THE RIGHT – MATYJA FURTHER STATES: “I believe that generational changes and the evolution of social sensitivity will contribute to a crisis of the worldview foundations of PiS and the right in Poland.” -- TRUMP'S DEFEAT WILL BE A SIGNAL THAT THIS WAY OF DOING POLITICS IS LOSING: “I would add, however, that there are events that have significance for social fluids and popular imagination, and they are related to the internationalization of politics. The aforementioned 5% of Poles are very concerned about world events. And now a potential Trump defeat, a severe crisis related to Brexit, or Orbán's troubles at some point, could be a signal that this way of doing politics is losing.” -- PLATFORMA LACKS THE ABILITY TO PERSUASIVELY TELL PEOPLE WHAT IS HAPPENING – MATYJA FURTHER STATES: “Kaczyński's and Tusk's greatness stemmed from their ability to name situations, even if factually incorrect. This gave them strength, in addition to dexterity in building party apparatuses, without which it is difficult to be high in politics. PO lacks this today; no one there has the ability to persuasively tell people what is happening. Unfortunately, the left is also moving in this direction, i.e., losing the ability to tell stories.” https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/po-kryzysie-zjenoczonej-prawicy-wywiad-matyja-sutowski/ -- THE ESSENCE OF THE OPERATION WAS TO TEST THE STRENGTH OF ZIOBRO'S CIRCLE IN PRACTICE – MICHAŁ KARNOWSKI: “Today we already know that coalitions could be assembled, in my opinion, according to a certain plan by Kaczyński. The essence of the operation in a political plan was to test the strength of the circle around Zbigniew Ziobro in practice and the subsequent adjustment of the Council of Ministers' composition to the outcome of the test. In particular, Jarosław Kaczyński's assumption of the position of Deputy Prime Minister is an element that increases the government's political weight, introducing a mediating and, to some extent, controlling factor within it, facilitating dispute resolution and dynamizing work. Jarosław Gowin's return to the position of Deputy Prime Minister should also reduce possible tensions between the government and its political base.” -- A LEAP FORWARD IN SEVERAL AREAS – KARNOWSKI FURTHER STATES: “Personnel changes have their weight, but we must see everything in a broader context. What is all this for? One can hypothesize that the modified government – although it was formed with difficulty and took a long time – is intended to provide an opportunity for a leap forward in several key areas. It is meant to be an even more efficient tool for achieving goals. It is meant to ensure that no day is wasted. A perspective of a three-year period without elections, with a parliamentary majority, with a president who is favorably disposed to the program of changes, offers a great chance to improve the lives of Poles, strengthen the state, guarantee pluralism, defend freedom of religion and conscience, complete the reform of the judiciary. And, of course, overcome the consequences of what the world has called the coronavirus epidemic.” -- BLOCKING SHANTYMEN ABROAD – KARNOWSKI FURTHER STATES: “It is not only for this reason that times are tough. International pressure on Poland is increasing. For the global left, for the Soros International, defending national identity and religious freedom, Poland is a thorn in their side. It will also require great effort to finally block the shantymenthreatening to illegally deprive us of EU (and therefore our) funds, to develop tools to effectively defend the good name of Poles and Poland.” https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/519949-i-znow-wyszlo-ze-ten-sie-smieje-kto-sie-smieje-ostatni -- THE NOMINATION OF PUDY CAN BE REGARDED AS A MOVE TOWARDS THE CENTER AS A LAST RESORT – JAKUB MAJMUREK IN KRYTYKA: “Let's start with the personnel, however. The composition of the government as it is shows that all those who hoped that the reconstruction would mean pacifying the 'Jacobin' faction and calmly building a social PiS state should now curse their own boundless naivety. The appointment of Grzegorz Puda to head the Ministry of Agriculture can be seen as a move towards the center as a last resort. Puda was the parliamentary rapporteur for the '5 for Animals' bill, earning him the gratitude of organizations like Open Cages. Relatively young by Polish political standards (born 1982), Puda can serve as a new face of the government, oriented beyond the core electorate.” -- AN EXCESSIVE CONSERVATIVE OFFENSIVE MAY HAVE THE OPPOSITE EFFECT – MAJMUREK FURTHER STATES: “In the short term, this war will cause a lot of damage, making Polish public debate even more brutal and polarized. In the long term – it is hard to imagine that Czarnek, with the help of ministerial pronouncements, national-Catholic first readings, school trips to the so-called Polish Borderlands, and academies in honor of Inka, Zagończyk, and Lech Kaczyński, will manage to reverse the civilizational trends that Polish children and youth have been subject to for decades. An excessive conservative offensive in science and education may have precisely the opposite effect.” -- TENSIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT – MAJMUREK FURTHER STATES: “The causes of the conflict, however, remain. Ziobro still has great ambitions and a somewhat different concept of Poland's future than Mateusz Morawiecki, who did not give up a lucrative career in the banking sector to fulfill someone else's plans in politics until the end of his life. And in this arrangement, there is also the 'PC order', the president's old comrades from the 90s, and a president who can no longer be threatened with a lack of support for a second term. Andrzej Duda has also announced that he has no time this week for the swearing-in of new ministers, while Morawiecki ignored this and, without the president, unilaterally announced the composition of the new cabinet. This could be a signal of tensions between the parliamentary majority and the presidential palace. We also hear that the president might veto the '5 for Animals' bill – coalition negotiations allegedly dragged on about guarantees from Ziobro and Gowin that their people would support the rejection of such a veto if necessary.” -- IT WILL BE INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT FOR PIS TO MAINTAIN DOMINANCE, KACZYŃSKI IN THE GOVERNMENT WILL WEAR HIMSELF OUT – MAJMUREK'S CONCLUSION: “For now, Jarosław Kaczyński is still holding everything together. The fact that he had to join the government to save his majority from disintegration can be interpreted as a sign that the all-powerful strategist from Nowogrodzka is weakening. His presence in the government will only politically wear him down and weaken him – when he headed the cabinet in 2006, it was the beginning of the end of the first PiS. Today is still very far from the end, according to all polls, PiS wins every election, the opposition is in the doldrums. However, it will be increasingly difficult for the ruling party to maintain this state of affairs – especially in the situation of the second wave of the pandemic and recession.” https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/rekonstrukcja-rzad-morawicki-kaczynski-komentarz-majmurek/ -- KACZYŃSKI IN THE GOVERNMENT WILL SOLVE PIS PROBLEMS – ANDRZEJ STANKIEWICZ: “Jarosław Kaczyński will oversee the ministries of justice, defense, and internal affairs. These ministries do not require particular political supervision in Poland's current situation, as they are not crucial today. They are crucial from the perspective of the internal situation within the ruling camp. Therefore, if Kaczyński is entering the government for the first time in 13 years, it is not to solve Poland's problems – but PiS's problems.” -- HE'S ENTERING BECAUSE NO ONE WAS ABLE TO MITIGATE THE WAR – STANKIEWICZ FURTHER STATES: “Virtually no one in the ruling camp beats around the bush: Kaczyński is entering the government because Morawiecki and Ziobro have started fighting, and no one else was able to mitigate this war.” -- HAS KACZYŃSKI TAKEN A STEP BACK ON THE PATH OF TRANSFERRING POWER TO THE PRIME MINISTER? – STANKIEWICZ FURTHER STATES: “That is precisely why Kaczyński has taken a step back on the path to transferring power to the prime minister. Kaczyński has realized that the attempt to force PiS to accept Morawiecki as the future leader may end in deep divisions and even a schism. Not only has he expressed readiness to join the government, but also – as speculated – he may postpone Morawiecki's party promotion to deputy chairman of PiS.” -- HE CANNOT STOP THE FUNDAMENTAL CONFLICT FOR POWER ON THE RIGHT – STANKIEWICZ'S CONCLUSION: “Kaczyński may still be able to suppress conflicts and somehow govern until 2023 by using his power in PiS and his new position as deputy prime minister. However, he can no longer stop the fundamental conflict for future power on the right.” https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/kaczynski-w-rzadzie-stankiewicz-stawka-wieksza-niz-ziobro-analiza/9lmw5v3 -- THE INTENSITY OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN THE COALITION HAS REACHED A CRITICAL LEVEL – ŁUKASZ LIPIŃSKI IN POLITYKA: “Because, in a sense, Morawiecki was right – it's not entirely about personalities, or at least not only about them. It's rather about whether PiS has managed to create a new stable arrangement in which it will wield undivided power for the next three years – building an Orban-esque, illiberal version of democracy on the Vistula and waging a culture war with half of Poles. The recent crisis has shown that the intensity of negative emotions, mutual grievances, and the lack of elementary trust within this team has reached a critical level. Under this pressure, a structure cobbled together with difficulty may crumble like a house of cards under the challenges of the pandemic and crisis.” https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/1973270,1,nowy-rzad-pis-pokoj-na-prawicy-czy-tymczasowy-rozejm.read?src=mt -- IF MORAWIECKI PASSES THE TEST, HE WILL BE SOMEONE MUCH MORE – MARCIN MAKOWSKI IN WP: “The question is whether the prime minister will gain in the long term from the party leader being present at Council of Ministers meetings? From now on, individual politicians will have much easier access to Jarosław Kaczyński, and it will be harder for Morawiecki to act as a privileged intermediary. On the other hand, for some time he may be calm about curbing Ziobro's ambitions, to whom Minister Przemysław Czarnek, securing PiS's right flank, will be speaking from today onwards. If the Prime Minister passes this leadership test under the supervision of his party superior, he may soon not only be the deputy chairman of PiS, but in the coming years, someone much more.” -- NOT PEACE BUT AN ARMISTICE – MAKOWSKI FURTHER STATES: “Regardless of how the power dynamics ultimately unfold in Mateusz Morawiecki's reconstructed cabinet, it is hard to avoid the impression that this is not peace, but merely an armistice for a maximum of three years.” https://opinie.wp.pl/makowski-rzad-tymczasowego-zawieszenia-broni-opinia-6559629778791264a -- MORE JAROSŁAWS THAN WOMEN – TITLE OF AN ANALYSIS BY SEBASTIAN KŁAUSIŃSKI IN OKO.PRESS: “The media reports from recent days have been confirmed. The new government has been reduced to 14 ministries. The only woman in the government will be Marlena Maląg, head of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy. As one commentator noted, there will be more Jarosław's than women in the new government. It is worth realizing the scale of this absurdity: there are 19,829,000 women and 18,582,000 men living in Poland. Women constitute a majority (52%). Meanwhile, in the Polish government, they are a marginalized minority (7%).” https://oko.press/morawiecki-oglosil-sklad-nowego-rzadu-wiecej-jaroslawow-niz-kobiet/ -- MORAWIECKI'S TASK: TO ENSURE VOTERS DON'T START WORRYING ABOUT THE ECONOMY – ZUZANNA DĄBROWSKA IN RZ: “Since the beginning of PiS's current 'good change', Mateusz Morawiecki has had one main task: to ensure voters don't accidentally start worrying about the economy. This has not changed in the new government. However, Jarosław Kaczyński's presence as Deputy Prime Minister robs the head of government of the last remnants of illusions about who is truly in charge. Perhaps, however, there were no illusions at all: Morawiecki is a man accustomed to 'central' rule, which ultimately makes the decisions – whether it's from Madrid about a bank's credit offer, or from Nowogrodzka about who should be a minister and what to do.” https://www.rp.pl/Polityka/309309876-Zuzanna-Dabrowska-Korpopremier-z-centrala-za-plecami.html -- A DEEPER NATIONALIST TURN DUE TO LACK OF FUNDS, WELCOME TO POLAND PIS 3.0 – JACEK ŻAKOWSKI IN GW: “Judging by the announced changes in the government's composition, the second term of PiS and Morawiecki will bring a deeper nationalist turn. As social spending shrinks under the pressure of crisis, because there is less money to distribute and more to take away, nationalism supported by authoritarianism will take the place of social policy at the top of the PiS agenda. This is mainly the content of the reconstruction. Welcome to Poland PiS 3.0.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,26353067,witajcie-w-polsce-pis-3-0.html -- THE PRESIDENT'S RESISTANCE TO A GENERAL'S NOMINATION FOR THE HEAD OF SKW – PAWEŁ WROŃSKI IN GW: “Also in the case of Mariusz Błaszczak, who replaced Macierewicz – who was dismissed not due to conflict with the president, but for disobedience to President Kaczyński and after American intervention – the relations were not rosy. An example is the president's reluctance to grant a general's rank to Marek Łapiński – the head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, who quickly earned a general's rank under PiS, but in border protection.” -- WROŃSKI ON THE CONCEPT OF THE EVER-LIVING KOK: “For the president, the threat may be that the formula of the National Security Committee repeats the concepts of the National Defense Committee from the PRL era. KOK – chaired by the First Secretary of the PZPR Central Committee – took precedence over ministers, services, and the entire national defense system in defense matters. During Lech Wałęsa's presidency, then-presidential ministers Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński fought to preserve the KOK system, but with the president's supremacy. If a new form of the National Defense Committee is established with PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński at its head, President Andrzej Duda's supremacy over the army will become illusory.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,26355171,kto-bedzie-zwierzchnikiem-armii-duda-czy-kaczynski.html -- BIRTHDAYS: Karol Lutkowski, Jerzy Meysztowicz, Krystyna Danilecka-Wojewódzka, Karolina Wigura. -- BONUS: THE FIRST LADY WITH A DOG - via Jakub Szymczuk.