The Polish government, led by Mateusz Morawiecki, is heading for a head-on collision with the European Union, alerts Krzysztof Śmiszek, Left MP. The MP points out that the authorities, instead of trying to ease tense relations, are consciously moving to escalate tensions.
Let us remind – Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki filed a motion to the Constitutional Tribunal after the European Court of Justice’s verdict in early March, relating to courts’ capacity to control the correctness of the process of appointing judges. As the Chancellery of the Prime Minister argued at the time, the motion concerns a comprehensive resolution of the issue of conflict of laws between European law and the constitution of Poland, as well as confirmation of the existing case law in this regard.
In the end, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that Polish law was superior to EU law and that the EU treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution.
The Unification Congress of the New Left was held in the Warsaw Expo conference center. Liberal-left Wiosna (literally, Spring) and social-democratic Nowa Lewica (New Left, formerly SLD – Democratic Left Alliance) have merged. The program is still being finalized.
Robert Biedroń and Włodzimierz Czarzasty, led their groups to unification, avoiding the reefs.
The leader of SLD, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, definitely had a worse position, as he struggled until the last moments with the rebellion on board by people who so far seemed to be symbols of loyalty. Czarzasty expelled some of them, suspended others, threatened some and put out the fire. Attempts to dethrone him will still continue, though.
https://strajk.eu/kongres-zjednoczeniowy-nowej-lewicy-dobil-do-brzegu/
Just few days earlier, in an overnight vote, the Senate adopted an amendment to the Act on foreigners, which was passed by the Sejm on 17 September. The amendments are rather symbolic and do not change the essence of the matter: in the light of the Polish law, pushbacks are to be legal.
After the bill is signed by the president, formally nothing will stop Polish border guards to push back a foreigner who has entered the European Union crossing the so-called green border. The fact that a person could apply for international protection will be irrelevant, their application can be left without consideration. The migrant will also be banned from entering Poland and the entire Schengen area for a period from six months to three years. The decision will be made by the Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard.
https://strajk.eu/ustawa-legalizujaca-push-backi-przyjeta-przez-senat-nieludzkie-podejscie-rzadu/
Moreover, the Polish authorities intend to spend an astronomical amount of taxpayers’ money to build a wall separating Poland from Belarus.
According to government sources, the project has already been submitted to the Parliamentary Commission on National Defense. The idea is to create „a solid, high barrier, also equipped with a monitoring system and motion detection”. It is being considered under the urgent procedure, so it is expected to be passed by the parliamentary majority in no time.
PiS can count on the support of its ideological allies from the far-rigt Confederation, who were the first to suggest that our government should join the infamous group of countries putting up walls on the borders.
Our journalist went to Eastern Poland, as close to the border as it is possible now under emergency law, to see how the situation is developing on the ground.
“A dozen kilometers from here it starts, but ma’am, they’re here too. Here in Hajnówka, although it is far from the border. I live near the forest, I see someone walking there all the time. It’s these people. They are everywhere here. My son showed me on TikTok a boy from Afghanistan, I think, when he made a video from Hajnówka. He got through, someone came here for him. Am I afraid? I am a bit scared, but more of the atmosphere, of everything, than of the refugees. There is a lot of army, helicopters are flying low, there is a lot of noise. I feel sorry for the children, our children, because they don’t know what it is, they are afraid, we have to explain it to them. They ask if there is a war. You can feel that something is going on here for a long time. And these people? Well, they are people, too. When Poles went to Germany to work, nobody stopped them. You just drove off and that was that. They don’t want to stay with us anyway, so what, we can’t let them pass? This whole state of emergency is one absurdity. In Białowieża everything was closed, people lost their jobs, they had to travel further and look for something, and not everyone will find it anyway. Now after the season they will not earn anything.
She shows me his phone with photos. – Look, it is here, in Hajnówka. The sun is setting, two military helicopters are hovering over the field, just like in Apocalypse Now” – One of the residents of the border town says in our report.
https://strajk.eu/granica-reportaz/
Last week’s talks of a delegation of protesting medical workers with the Ministry of Health were supposed to be the talks of last resort. They ended in a fiasco. The communiqué of the protest committee informs: an agreement was put to our signature, which did not guarantee anything and did not refer to our postulates. Without a timetable for implementation. No relation with problems of health service, which were pointed out by protesters.
The Committee suggests another meeting in a week, with the Minister of Health, not his deputy hastily nominated to conduct a dummy dialogue, and then wants to sit down at the table with the people who are really in charge of the state’s finances. I don’t know if the nurses, paramedics, doctors and other medical professionals really believe that these meetings will accomplish anything. They have all too much reason to be under no illusions. White Town and the catastrophe in health care they signaled did not even become the number one topic in the media, losing at one point even with the beatification of Cardinal Wyszynski.
Society behaves in this manner as capitalism has taught – everyone cares only about himself and counts on the fact that in case of medical need he will somehow manage. Repairing the public health service? We have become accustomed to this underfunded, unreliable, with overcrowded EDs and we don’t even believe that it can be different anymore. Besides, when someone explains that it could be, but in order to do so, for example, it is necessary to raise taxes on someone, a holy indignation is aroused.
https://strajk.eu/pielegniarek-zabraknie-naprawde/
The Ministry of Justice has boasted of an agreement with employees of courts and prosecutor’s offices. It suggests that this is the end of the dispute over salaries and working conditions of these people. But trade unions, which set up a red town in front of the Ministry’s building, claim that it is a manipulation.
The Red Town of justice workers (court officials) is still standin near Warsaw’s Plac Na Rozdrożu. As the chairwoman of the Ad Rem trade union, which unites court secretaries, assistant judges, and court reporters, explained us, these employees, who ensure the daily functioning of the courts, are demanding a 12 percent pay raise, a crackdown on workplace bullying, and a guarantee of increased employment. Today they are simply overloaded with duties.
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