-- BODNAR: I HAVE BEGUN MY OFFICIAL DUTIES IN THE OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR GENERAL AT THE SEAT OF THE NATIONAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE - 300LIVE: https://300polityka.pl/live/2024/01/15/ -- WOJCIECH TUMIDALSKI IN RZ: ADAM BODNAR'S DARING MOVES WILL ONLY BE VINDICATED IF PUBLIC OPINION IS ASSURED THEY ARE NOT DRIVEN BY REVENGE: “Adam Bodnar's daring moves will only be vindicated if public opinion is assured that they are not driven by revenge in the prosecutor's office, but by the correction of pathologies in criminal prosecution. However, a war at the top is looming. (...) This is not some ‘legal dispute’ between two equal sides, but a conflict between law and lawlessness. And alongside the code of criminal procedure, Minister Bodnar's moral code will be crucial here – as a certain internet user, unknown to me, accurately put it. Specifically, whether the prosecutor's office under his leadership will refrain from the abuse of power rightly attributed to his predecessors.” https://www.rp.pl/opinie-prawne/art39695281-wojciech-tumidalski-kodeks-moralny-ministra-bodnara -- DUDA DECIDED HE WOULD GO BECAUSE HE PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED INFORMAL ASSURANCES FROM HIS POLICE CONTACTS THAT OFFICERS WOULD NOT ENTER DURING HIS ABSENCE. HOWEVER, THE OPPOSITE HAPPENED - WOJCIECH CZUCHNOWSKI IN GW: “There were 14 police officers, all in uniform. Not all of them entered the office; some waited in the secretariat. According to one account, Ignaczak-Bandych called Colonel Hebda a 'Judas,' and Wąsik allegedly said, 'I will not forgive you for this.' Kamiński was calm. The politicians were led out in handcuffs.” -- IF THE PRESIDENT'S HEAD OF SECURITY HAD CHOSEN THE ENTRANCE FROM THE NATIONAL SECURITY BUREAU, WHICH DOES HAPPEN, DUDA WOULD HAVE WALKED STRAIGHT INTO THE POLICE - CONTINUES CZUCHNOWSKI: “The presidential cars arrived at the palace very quickly and entered from the main entrance. If the president's head of security had chosen the entrance from the National Security Bureau, which does happen, Duda would have walked straight into the police officers who were escorting Kamiński and Wąsik out. They missed each other by literally three minutes.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75398,30592860,wyborcza-ujawnia-tak-zatrzymano-kaminskiego-i-wasika-plan.html -- THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT IS AN EPISODIC PROVISION. IT CONSISTS OF THE FACT THAT IT EXPIRES WHEN THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT WAS INTRODUCED HAS CEASED TO EXIST - PROF. JAN ZIMMERMANN IN AN INTERVIEW WITH OKO.PRESS ON THE INVALIDITY OF ZIOBRO'S REINSTATEMENT OF BARSKI FROM RETIREMENT: "The problem is that it is an episodic provision. It consists of the fact that it expires when the purpose for which it was introduced has ceased to exist. That purpose was to fill the staffing needs of the National Prosecutor's Office, newly established in 2016 [PiS abolished the General Prosecutor's Office then and established a new National Prosecutor's Office, a move that allowed for personnel purges – ed.]. Once it was staffed, this transitional provision ceased to be in force and was no longer needed. It should be considered that it was no longer in force in the following years and is not in force to this day. It was a special provision concerning returns from retirement at that time, in order to complete the staff of the National Prosecutor's Office. Article 47 does not contain any time limit, so the question arises whether it is an episodic provision. Or whether it is valid for the future. However, this time limit can be inferred from other provisions of this law." https://oko.press/zimmermann-bodnar-mogl-odsunac-prokuratora-krajowego-barskiego-bo-ziobro-zastosowal-zly-przepis -- IF THEY MAKE NORMAL STATE FUNCTIONING IMPOSSIBLE, DEMOCRATS WILL HAVE TO MOBILIZE, PREPARING FOR EARLIER ELECTIONS - WITOLD GADOMSKI IN GW: “The relative success of Thursday's demonstration and the significant increase in viewers of TV Republika indicate that the mobilization of the PiS electorate is growing. On the democratic side, there is not much mobilization, and rightly so. However, if PiS politicians make normal state functioning impossible through their actions – for example, blocking the Sejm – democrats will have to mobilize, preparing for earlier elections.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,30591444,czwartkowa-demonstracja-pokazala-ze-rosnie-mobilizacja-zwolennikow.html -- PIS MAY TURN OUT TO BE SUCH A TOTAL OPPOSITION THAT COMPARED TO IT, THE 'TOTALITY' OF PLATFORM... WAS CHILD'S PLAY - MICHAŁ SZUŁDRZYŃSKI IN RZ: “This makes PiS a more difficult opponent for Donald Tusk than last time. With the president still in place (although the proposal to re-pardon Kamiński and Wąsik slightly lowered the polarization a few dozen minutes before the march began), the Constitutional Tribunal, part of the Supreme Court, and still powerful influence in the prosecutor's office, PiS may turn out to be such a total opposition that compared to it, Platforma's 'totality' from the time of the United Right government, which Grzegorz Schetyna once spoke about (as he coined the phrase), will be child's play.” https://www.rp.pl/komentarze/art39689981-michal-szuldrzynski-co-pis-ugralo-na-protescie-wolnych-polakow -- FREE KAMIŃSKI AND WĄSIK? THAT WOULD BE A NIGHTMARE MISTAKE - MAREK BEYLIN IN GW: “One cannot restore the rule of law by initially humiliating its authority. And freeing both gentlemen merely out of fear of PiS's strength would be such a humiliation. It would appear that officials of this party, implicated in various crimes, can count on de facto impunity because the democratic government fears them. (...) But if Minister Bodnar were to yield, PiS would regain much power as a party of the impunity and unconquered.” https://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,30593077,uwolnic-kaminskiego-i-wasika-to-bylby-koszmarny-blad.html -- THE PROBLEM IS THAT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT ANDRZEJ DUDA'S ACTION TRULY AIMS TO SOOTHE EMOTIONS - TOMASZ SAWCZUK IN KULTURA LIBERALNA: "In this context, voices emerged suggesting that Bodnar should positively respond to the president's request, which would help reduce the level of political conflict. That would not be bad. The problem is that there is no guarantee that Andrzej Duda's action truly aims to soothe emotions. It is easy to imagine a situation where Kamiński and Wąsik are released from prison, and then the president drags out the pardon procedure indefinitely. After all, he is convinced that he has already pardoned them." -- AS PART OF THE RECENT BECKETT-ESQUE FESTIVAL ORGANIZED BY PiS, WE WOULD THEN HAVE POLITICAL PRISONERS WHO NO ONE IS REPRESSING - CONTINUES SAWCZUK: “As part of the Beckett-esque festival recently organized by PiS, we would then have political prisoners who are not being repressed by anyone, while their colleague, the president, can pardon them at any moment but does not. They might possibly be released from prison while awaiting pardon, but never be pardoned. Then, in the scene concluding the third act, Kamiński and Wąsik would presumably try to enter the Sejm, thinking they are MPs, even though they are not MPs.” https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2024/01/15/sawczuk-czekajac-na-dude/ -- TUSK'S GOAL? THE ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDEPENDENCE CAMP. SO THAT POLAND NEVER AGAIN THREATENS GERMAN DOMINANCE - JACEK KARNOWSKI: “He is striving for the ultimate destruction of the Polish independence camp, so that our country never again threatens German dominance in Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, it seems that today there is no more important goal than stopping Tusk, than saving the foundations of our democracy. Everything else is secondary today. Everything else blurs the issue that cannot be escaped, that cannot be bypassed. Not now, when opposition MPs are in prison, public media have been completely illegally pacified, the national prosecutor is being dismissed against the law, and key investments are being abandoned. Each subsequent act of lawlessness heralds and fuels further, increasingly brazen moves. The calculation that furious rage will subside has no credible basis.” https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/678239-cel-tuska-ostateczne-zniszczenie-obozu-niepodleglosciowego -- POLITICIANS BEHIND BARS? GREAT! SO WHEN ARE THE PRIESTS? - PAULINA JANUSZEWSKA IN KRYTYKA POLITYCZNA: “But unlike the Church, I do not intend to continue to burden Catholics with the sins of their pastors. I demand that criminals be called criminals in my country and treated as such. Since PiS dignitaries are already in jail, why can't their clerical buddies be?” https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/politycy-za-kratkami-swietnie-to-kiedy-ksieza/ -- BIRTHDAYS: Danuta Walewska, Agnieszka Romaszewska, Jacek Protas, Paweł Stremski, Ewa Lieder.