EPP in Crisis
“The EPP is dead”! Did Viktor Orbán plan a hostile take-over of the party? What are the plans for the future? Welcome to rainy Zagreb, where the European People’s Party holds its congress 2019. Hashtag…
Read More
2 Commissioners missing
Today there were hearings in the European Parliament. Extra hearings following the rejection of the initial candidates for Commissioners from Romania, Hungary and France. The replacement candidates who did well are the two: Adina-Ioana Vălean…
4 Commissioners missing
For the new European Commission to take office – initially scheduled for 1 November – we are still missing four confirmations and a final confirmation vote in the European Parliament. Three Commissioners-candidates were rejected earlier…
Donald Tusk writes a book
President of the European Council just announced a new book to be published in December, “Szczerze”, or “Honestly”, about his 5 years in office as the President of the European Council. ‼️Z ostatniej chwili‼️ Znamy…
Jarosław Kaczyński writes to voters
Almost two weeks after the Polish general elections the politics in Warsaw is fourfold. There is a fight for the control over the Senate where the united opposition parties snatched a tiny majority (51-49) over…
Political Europe & Me
Dear Reader, In a form of a letter, let me try to cover the ongoing political issues related to the European Union. You are free to ask and to comment. You are free to disagree….
The Week After the Vote
Just four days after the parliamentary elections in Poland and the new political reality in Warsaw is slowly settling in. What do we know? A New PM in sight – unlikely Mateusz Morawiecki was or…
Poland voted: the Senate results
PiS loses out in the Senate to the Opposition. Difficult time ahead. #Gimme5EU
Poland voted: the morning after
So yesterday Poles went to the polls. And yes they did. Big numbers, some 61% (estimated) of the electorate showed up. The celebration of democracy continues. As the results come in and they are distorted…
Poland voted: First reactions
Today Poles go to the polls to elect new Sejm of 460 MPs and 100 Senators. As the first exit polls come out, Law and Justice is the clear winner with 43.6% of the vote….
Poland Votes 2019: four days to go
In four days Poles will chose their Parliament. There are 460 seats in the Sejm and 100 Senate seats to grab. Five electoral committees are competing for the votes: Law and Justice (PiS) is the…
Wojciechowski gets EP approval on second attempt
Janusz Wojciechowski will be Ursula’s von der Leyen’s Commissioner for Agriculture, after all. The Agricultural Committee of the European Parliament just heard the Polish politician for the second time today. After the second hearing was…
How bad did Wojciechowski perform?
The 1 October Wojciechowski hearing is poor. Even when the chair of the AGRI committee asks for the MEPs to applaud the Commissioner-designate it is lukewarm, at best. Mr Wojciechowski’s performance is the poorest of…
Will Mr Wojciechowski pass the test?
Ever since the replacement of the next Polish Commissioner, Mr Wojciechowski has kept a low profile trying to avoid the temper of the gods of the European Parliament who are on the hunt in this…
The Hearings Are Coming Up
The second to last element in the process of establishing the new European leadership is about to take place. The show will begin as each of the individual Commissioners-nominees will face the European Parliament committee…
Ursula’s College: the critical approach
Ursula von der Leyen is proud. Her College is gender almost-balanced. There are 27 members, 14 men and 13 women. There were never as many ladies in the European Commission college. Yet, is this truly…
Poland’s Choice 2019: Elections Stakes
On 13 October, Poles will go to the polls to chose their parliament. Who will rule Poland for the next four years? What are different political actors fighting for in this elections?
The Ministry of Hate
It is evening, 19 August 2019. Another sunny, hot day. The climate change shows its positive side for holiday-makers, as there are thousands of people on the sunny sandy beaches over the southern Baltic coast…
Szczerski withdraws & his book, ‘Power & Market’ (5)
Krzysztof Szczerski will not be a European Commissioner.
Szczerski on Polish history lessons (Part 4)
Krzysztof Szczerski draws lessons from Polish history for Europe
Jarosław Kaczyński: we need to limit the LGBT ideology
Jarosław Kaczyński sees a conspiracy between independent judiciary, European Union and LGBT
Szczerski: Euro’s good only for the powerful (Part 3)
Krzysztof Szczerski is a candidate for the position of a Commissioner in the College of Ursula von der Leyen. Earlier this week there was a meeting between the nominee and the Commission President. The only…
Air Kuchciński lands. Will PiS plane refuel & take off?
Marek Kuchciński is no longer Speaker of the Sejm. His flights scandal made him grounded.
Poland’s National Elections on 13 October 2019
Poland’s national elections campaign is on! 13 October is the date.
Szczerski: Europe without a soul is dead (Part 2)
Krzysztof Szczerski, the Commissioner-nominee for the Ursula von der Leyen Commission, published a book in 2017 entitled “European Utopia“. I am reading it for you. Today’s part: “Europe without a soul is dead“. According to…
Krzysztof Szczerski’s Noah’s Days (Part 1)
Krzysztof Szczerski on Europe
The Quest for the Commissioner is (not yet) over
Ursula von der Leyen has a busy summer. She is touring the EU capitals searching for her Commissioners. By now she’s been in Paris, Warsaw, Rome and Budapest, among other capital cities. In Warsaw she…
Polish MEPs in EP Committees
There are 20 Committees in the European Parliament and 2 sub-Committees. There are 51 MEPs elected in Poland. Who sits where? Here is the list of all the MEPs elected in Poland who are either…
The Quest for a Polish Commissioner continues
Many countries have already appointed next Commissioners. There is a deficit of women. The Polish Commissioner is still missing. For the time being the list is closed. By the time Ursula von der Leyen comes…
Polish democracy: gay rights or gay propaganda?
In the European Elections 46% Poles took part, which is an astounding increase with the previous European votes in 2004, 2009 and 2014 (all with 20-25% participation level). In October 2018 during the local and…
Difficult first weeks in the Parliament for PiS
Law and Justice has a very difficult period in the new European Parliament. It comes into the chamber as the winner of the Polish vote. Since, there are problems. First small, then big. The first…
How the Szydło affair keeps Commissioners-nominees hostage
In the chaos of transition between the Parliaments and the Commissions there are some surprise stories, twists and attempted shortcuts. There are unintended consequences and parallel processes that impact one another. Here’s one such story….
“The European Way” of Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula von der Leyen delivers the speech of her lifetime. See the details here #Gimme5EU
Will all of EPP support Ursula?
10 July 2019. Meeting of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament in Brussels. Main theme: meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, candidate for the presidency of the European Commission. The meeting is closed,…
How cordon sanitaire played out & Beata Szydło lost
Beata Szydło loses the leadership of EMPL committee. PiS is humiliated in the European Parliament.
Krasnodębski is NOT a Vice-President. How come?
There are 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament. Elected in three rounds on Wednesday, here they are: The natural thing for the European Parliament in choosing its vice-president is to do so by a consensus…
The Italian Affair
The next day starts with the big news of yesterday: Ursula is the new Queen of Europe. Yikes! In Poland the debate is if this is a true win for the Polish government or not…
Habemus papam… not yet
2 July 2019, a series of tweets of Donald Tusk: pic.twitter.com/jXJtYsrs6Y— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) July 2, 2019 pic.twitter.com/sXKV7MT09F— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) July 2, 2019 pic.twitter.com/8szVwNavX7— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) July 2, 2019 pic.twitter.com/l3bGr4vp8H— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident)…
European Council negotiates top jobs
If you follow the top-jobs debate in the European Union you may know about the stalemate since 26 May. The stalemate is political and institutional. It is institutional between the European Council and the European…
Why the European Coalition lost?
It is a month since the European elections and the Civic Platform (PO) now knows why they lost the vote on 26 May. Here’s what Gazeta Wyborcza published a few days ago on the issue….
Groups are ready. Parliament is ready to play
As 7 groups are formed and there are two major left-outs still looking for a place for themselves in the new European Parliament, the people’s institution is taking shape before it’s official launch on 2…
The Climate Veto
Brussels, Thursday, 20 June 2019. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki vetoes the European Council conclusion on the 2050 full decarbonisation objective. Poland objects, alongside Czechia, Hungary and Estonia. Climate neutrality must be achieved by 2050, “for…
The European Nightmare of Polish Opposition
In the elections to the European Parliament the Polish Opposition run united as the “European Coalition”. In their rhetoric, the leaders and the candidates warned the general public of the risk of “Polexit” that might…
Will the next Polish EU Commissioner be female?
Last time we wrote about who can be the Polish Commissioner in the next European Commission there were 6 names on the agenda. Four of them are still in play (Szymański, Fotyga, Bielan and Kwieciński),…
The Battle of 2 ex-PMs in the European Parliament is looming
Two weeks ago the new European Parliament is chosen. Today the politicians and the media in Poland are already focused on the next hurdle, the Sejm and the Senate elections in October. Meanwhile, the new…
EPP new leadership: the Polish faces
The situation in the largest group in the European Parliament is such that the biggest national cohorts have significantly changed. Not only the number went down from 216 to 179. Also, the number of MEPs…
The Opposition Soulsearching
The 26 May elections is a major turning point in the 2019 politics in Poland. This is the second leg in the long march for power for the Opposition trying to restore peace and order…
The Deszczno Cows or how the Commission is losing a public debate in Poland
The European Commission is proud of solving problems. Real problems. And often, rightly so. Yet every now and then it creates a new reason of disbelief and mistrust. How? Here’s a story. “Cows of Deszczno”…
MEPs elected in Poland 2019-2024
Here is the complete list of 51 MEPs and 1 in-waiting elected in Poland for the 9th term of the European Parliament 2019-2014. 26 of them will go to ECR (PiS), 17 to EPP (PO…
PiS is the winner
The final results are in. Law and Justice (PiS) wins in Poland for ECR. It shall bring in 26 MEPS, 27th in-waiting until Brexit. The European Coalition’s 22 MEPs could be divided – most likely…
The Polish EP 2019 results are coming in
As the night is unfolding, the first results of the European elections in Poland are coming in. Initially as exit polls, late polls, this morning (6 AM) we have results out of 95,9% of precincts….
Will Poles double the turnout?
In the previous European elections Poles did not vote in big numbers. Turnout never was higher than 25%. This time it looks like things go differently. The Electoral Commission just informed that the turnout at…
Last days of the campaign
If you think Law and Justice (PiS) is anti-European, anti-systemic, anti-liberal democracy, think again. Not because Law and Justice presents itself as a modern, pro-European party with a logo “Poland at the heart of Europe”…
Tusk goes political & violent incidents in South Poland
The last weekend before the European elections the Polish campaign is gaining speed. The paedophilia covered in the Catholic Church dominates the debate. With the 18 May march in Warsaw and reinforcement in the person…
Facebook bans 13 Polish pages
On Europe Day, 9 May, the news about Facebook’s new elections operations centre in Dublin hit the wires. This time it is different. This time the social platforms take the fake news threat seriously. The…
Aftershocks of the Tell No One documentary
11 May 2019, the Tomasz and Marek Sekielski documentary about the paedophilia in the Catholic Church in Poland is released. No major TV wanted to produce it, so the journalist Tomasz Sekielski and his brother…
The Church debate
There is no separation between Church and state in Poland. Since 1989 every Polish government is pro-Church. Different governments differ only by the degree of how pro-Church their leaders are. Even agnostic or non-believing leaders…
Rebranded European Coalition: 100 billion more!
The European Coalition (EC) campaign is changing. So far, the leifmotif of the Coalition is to warn the Poles of a risk of “Polexit”, even if unintended. For that reason the EC has a hashtag…
Donald Tusk defends the Constitution and Europe
Tusk delivers an important speech at Warsaw University 3 May 2019. He talks Poland, Europe and global challenges. #Gimme5EU
Andrzej Duda: Europe it’s us
Poland’s EU accession in 2004 is a success story. As such, it has many fathers. Today PiS politicians no longer talk of “imaginary community” or “ruined Poland”. Today they are pro-European. Just listen to the…
Rostowski: Brexit is the worst event in Western Europe since WW2
Brexit puts the details of the European elections in limbo. It looked like there will be 705 MEPs. Now it seems we will see the same number of MEPs as before: 751. With Britain or…
Only 6 Committees to run in EP elections in Poland
The Electoral Commission registered all the electoral lists and only six of them are registered in the entire country, hence are entitled to mandates, should they meet the 5% threshold in Poland. They are (with…
Marek Jurek has a problem
Marek Jurek is a conservative MEP. In 2014 he is elected to the EP from the Law and Justice list and leaves the party a few weeks later. He is the most recognisable face of…
PiS Europe Strategy
“For us, Moscow’s financing is a red line that cannot be crossed” says Zdzisław Krasnodębski, vice-president of the European Parliament, MEP with ECR/PiS After elections, there will be more than one group right-of-the-EPPECR has a…
The Euro question…
Poland is outside of the Eurozone, together with Sweden, Denmark, Czechia and Hungary. Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia joined the EU later and are on their way to the Eurozone, at least this is what one…
Poland on strike
Since Monday, 8 April, Polish schools and pre-schools are on strike. Classes are cancelled throughout the country. Teachers are demanding increases of salary. The government reached an agreement with one of three of the trade…
Timmermans has a shot
Frans Timmermans comes to Warsaw as a leading candidate of the European Social Democrats for the position of President of the European Commission. Frans Timmermans comes to Warsaw at the Commission’s First Vice President in…
The Scare v. The Big Lie
The campaign to the European Parliament in Poland revolves around the weekends, when all the major political blocks try to impose a new narrative. This weekend is no different. In the recent weeks PiS run…
The Group of Souverenists in the making
Remember the Salvini visit in Warsaw in January? That’s past. On Wednesday, PiS Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński met with the delegation of Brothers of Italy, a ECR party from Italy with no MEPs yet. Prezes #PiS…
Hübner & Boni still fight for the MEP seat
Two of some of the best politicians in the outgoing European Parliament (judging by the amount of MEP Awards nominations, alone…) have been elected five years before from the Warsaw electoral district. This spring they…
Welcome to the Middle Ages Poland
Over the weekend politicians tried their best to campaign. One of the candidates for the MEP came to Częstochowa… two short stories about some weird incidents taking place in Poland. Let me assure you, not…
The Next Polish EU Commissioner
As the European elections come closer the issue of its outcome begins to unfold. The next European Commission, whoever is the next Commission President, will continue to have equal number of Commissioners to that of…
Brexit unexpected fallout in the Court of Justice
All EU institutions have to prepare for the post-Brexit reality. The British Commissioner will lose his position on the day the UK leaves the EU. After the European Council last week the chance there will…
“Europe needs Spring”
It is Saturday, 23 March, a theatre in the Warsaw city centre. It is a quarter to 2PM. A crowd is growing with every minute. There are more and more people, they all came here…
Abascal in Warsaw
Santiago Abascal, leader of the Spanish party Vox arrives in Warsaw for a meeting with Jarosław Kaczyński, the chairman of Law and Justice (PiS). The purpose of the meeting? To meet and study each other,…
Children in the middle of the EP campaign
Law and Justice runs a campaign against the LGBT+ community accusing the opposition of an ideological war and “sexualisation of children”;Teachers’ unions go on strike: derailment of the spring exams in sight and maybe even…
Hübner & Boni out of the European Parliament?
The European Coalition (KE) has presented its leaders in the upcoming European elections. Only a third of the current Civic Platform (PO) MEPs has a real life chance to return to the Strasbourg chamber in…
Future MEP seats
Come 26 May there are 705 MEPs. We are used to the same or similar number of MEPs being elected from each of the EU member countries. Yet the changes in the MEPs allocation not…
One Poland, diversified
As many as 62.1% of Poles and Poles believe that religion should take place in vicarage, while only 37.9% are in favour of religious education in schools. 55.9% prefer to be buried in a traditional…
PiS EP tactics: buy & scare
23 February, Jarosław Kaczyński, PiS chairman enters the stage to present PiS’ new political offer. On the agenda are five key points, which soon are labelled “the Kaczyński Five”. In the following days the details…
Trzaskowski: Orbán is EPP’s enfant terrible
The 2019 European elections are important. There are many issues creating its context. High partisanship does not allow for a proper debate to take place in Poland, but there is a great divide in whole…
Orbán’s days in the EPP are…
Early March in Brussels is a cloudy weather for Fidesz, the Hungarian EPP member. Fidesz is a powerful national party in Hungary, ruling alone in Budapest since 2010. Fidesz is also a powerful party within…
Is the Spitzenkandidaten system dead?
2014. There are two candidates who compete for the presidency of the European Commission. Jean-Claude Juncker is the candidate of the European People’s Party. Martin Schulz is the candidate of the Party of European Socialists….
European Coalition is a reality now
Some ideas take years to materialise. Some take the world by storm. Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Early December 2018 Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Poland’s former left wing prime minister, foreign minister and for many years an independent senator, appeals:…
When the child predator priest monument goes down
The issue of paedophilia in the Catholic Church is a delicate and important matter. The issue of covering up of paedophiles among the Catholic clergy has been a major problem for the leadership of the…
Hosting the Middle East Summit was a mistake
The conference on the Middle East peace and security ends in Warsaw on Thursday, 14 February. Some 60+ countries are present. US Vice-president Mike Pence, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo and Poland’s minister of foreign…
SLD and the Polish Greens join the European Coalition
The Polish Social-Democrats Democratic Left Alliance, SLD (members of S&D with 5 MEPs in the current EP) will not compete in the European Parliament elections on their own. In May 2019 they will run in…
Five Stars fakes a future EP group at a press conference
Leaders of 5 parties from Italy, Poland, Croatia, Finland and Greece met in Rome to sign an electoral manifesto. The block has been in discussion for weeks. Initially 4 parties, today they are 5. M5S…
PiS leaks front people in EP elections
Yesterday evening the Polish media revealed the leading candidates of Law and Justice in the EP elections. As Poland is divided into 13 electoral districts the candidates who are PiS no.1 choices in each electoral…
Before the Warsaw Middle East Conference begins
Before the Middle East conference in Warsaw starts there is an array of perspectives on why this event takes place now and why in Warsaw. A variety of actors land in the Polish capital with…
Who Poles like
According to the latest survey of positive and negative feelings towards 22 nations, the Polish citizens hold positive views of 16 of the surveyed nations. The results of the opinion poll: [10-17.01.2019] Na 22 uwzględnione…
Poland’s EP elections latest opinion poll
From the mists of chaos the closer we are to 26 May, it seems there will be the following options to vote in the European elections in Poland. The latest figures have been provided by…
The kind of Europe PiS wants
Everyday news is one thing. The Harrold Macmillan words “Events, dear boy, events” rule the politics and the media attention. What grows underneath in the country is not exactly catchy on a specific day. Yet…
5x MEP Awards noms for Polish MEPs!
This is another awards season. “Winter is coming” is a motto of the Stark family of the HBO series Game of Thrones. It will be a big hit later this year and definitely a frontrunner…
“Watch out what you share”
What one fake news can do is to seed a mistrust. A mistrust to another human being because of who they are, because of who they believe in, because of how they look like. Here…
Truth to power
Who truly reads this blog? Please, comment this blog and I will know that you read it. As the European Parliament project has ended (#Gimme5EU), this blog is now gone.