Poland

The European elections held on 26th May 2019 confirmed what was feared: The national-conservative party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice, PiS) won by a clear majority. What are the reasons behind this election result and how has the political mood in the country changed?

The figures speak for themselves: 15 years after joining the European community, 91 percent of Poles support EU membership, with only five percent against. According to 78 percent of those surveyed, the consequences are overwhelmingly positive. Moreover, 56 percent feel they are Europeans, an increase of around 13 percent compared to 2014.

Given how consequential it may be for hundreds of thousands of Poles living in the United Kingdom, the question of Brexit is strangely absent from the public debate just before European elections.

Journalism is in a serious crisis. Nevertheless, alternative left-wing media are still out there in Europe, providing quality news and analysis with financial backing not from oligarchs or big business but from their readers. An exchange between the makers of merce.hu (Hungary), republik.ch (Switzerland), oko.press (Poland), and taz.de (Germany).

On July 2nd and 3rd, the French-German-Polish Forum on European Structural Change convened in Paris.

Weil Polen die Annahme von Asylanträgen überwiegend verweigert, müssen Geflüchtete in in der belarussischen Grenzstadt Brest ausharren. Sicher fühlen sie sich dort nicht.

Nowhere in the EU is smog more suffocating than in southern Poland. This year, the polluted Polish mining city Katowice will host the COP24 climate conference. Ahead of that, change is in the air — and on the ground.

Orbán tries to destroy Germany’s positive image in Central Eastern Europe, depicting Germany as the capital of the decadent, liberal, pro-immigration EU that is doomed to fail. Tolerating such a behaviour would be a huge long-term strategic mistake for Germany.

With Britain leaving the EU Poland is loosing one of its most important security policy ally. At the same time up to a million polish migrants in Britain are facing an uncertain future as they were already being used as scapegoats in the Brexit campaign.

With the UK gone, Poland, under the Law and Justice (PiS) government, will lose its favourite ally within the EU.