One of the standout facts in this great data-driven piece by @tomcalver.bsky.social is that the Warsaw region has higher GDP per capita, adjusted for cost of living, than any part of the UK other than central London

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Poland is now "nearly as rich as the UK" after seeing real GDP per capita grow 18% since 2019, compared to 1% for the UK, notes @thetimes.com. "In some ways Poland is already ahead...[with] faster mobile internet, cheaper electricity and more high-speed rail."

With growing military, economic and energy ties around the Baltic Sea, Poland's geopolitical focus is increasingly towards the north, unlike for most of its recent history, writes @danieltilles1.bsky.social.

How Poland is becoming a Baltic power

notesfrompoland.com

This is being claimed as a victory for Tusk and/or Nawrocki but in reality the European Commission said in 2023 that Poland was likely to benefit from the migration pact - rather than have to receive migrant quotas - because it has taken in so many Ukrainians: notesfrompoland.com/2023/06/26/e...

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Poland has secured an exemption from accepting relocated migrants under the EU's new migration pact, says the government. "I said that there would be no relocation of migrants in Poland, and there won’t be!" celebrated Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

A lovely Polish saying I've just learned: jak szczur na otwarcie kanału. Literal meaning: like a rat for the opening of a sewer. Figurative meaning: being dressed in an ostentatious or overly formal way

Gazeta Polska's cover was awful but, as a believer in free speech and media freedom, I don't think courts should be ordering newspapers to make apologies for insulting politicians. And I don't think politicians should be suing them to do so.

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · last yr.

A court has ordered a right-wing newspaper to apologise for a cover featuring Prime Minister Donald Tusk that a judge found "clearly associated [him] with Hitler". Its editor says the ruling is reminiscent of actions against the press in Belarus or Turkey.

I'm a strong supporter of Ukraine, but Zelensky shouldn't have answered this question in a way that risked making such support a partisan issue in Poland, where up until now both main parties have strongly backed Kyiv. He could easily have answered by saying he does not want to comment...1/2

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 2y ago

Opposition figures have accused Volodymyr Zelensky of "brazen interference" in Poland's presidential elections after he used a visit to Warsaw to present an award to the main ruling party's candidate and to aim apparent criticism at the main opposition candidate.

The former PiS government regularly clashed with Israel (much more than Tusk has done) and waged lawfare against domestic opponents. That didn't seem to bother Trump then, so why should it now?

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Does the Tusk government really think that targeting Israel and waging lawfare against opponents at home will get his relationship with Trump off to a strong start? America needs a strong Poland with a strong opposition — not a major ally mired in vendetta politics," writes the National Review.

Among Poland's various aims during its EU presidency, by far the hardest will be teaching Europe to speak Polish in six months

Last December, after elections that removed PiS from power, the proportion of Poles who said they were satisfied with the functioning of democracy reached its highest ever level of 55%. Now, after a year of Tusk's government, the figure has fallen back to the norm

This is the Polish equivalent of DEFCON 2. The nuclear option is to get Polish grandmothers to release their strategic butter reserves

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 2y ago

The Polish government is releasing 1,000 tonnes of butter from its strategic reserves in an effort to stabilise prices. The rising cost of butter has become the subject of a political dispute, with the opposition blaming the government for the situation.

It's amazing how little attention this announcement has received. The rhetoric of "migrant weaponisation" and the idea of ignoring asylum rights - as was promoted by parties like PiS three years ago - has now gone completely mainstream

Notes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 2y ago

The EU is allocating funds to countries neighbouring Russia and Belarus in order to strengthen their borders against the "weaponisation of migrants". It also says that member states can introduce measures that “may entail serious interferences with fundamental rights such as the right to asylum”.

Święczkowski: nieopublikowane orzeczenia TK są nadal ważne, a premier, który ich nie publikuje, łamie prawo. cc BeataSzydlo @pisorgpl.bsky.social

Now that you're all leaving X, Kaczyński - who has famously had zero social media presence - has finally set up an account there