NEWSLETTER
From Poland with Love. November
Topic of the Month
KO Primaries and a PiS Casting
Presidential elections will be held in Poland in May next year. After two terms in office, Andrzej Duda cannot run for re-election and everything indicates that the final fight for the office will take place between the candidates of the Civic Coalition (KO) and PiS. Smaller parties are officially counting on entering the second round, but in reality they are counting on third position and decent results that will allow them to survive.
Civic Coalition picked its candidate in primaries. Two candidates were approved by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, namely mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski. The former one is a progressive politician, and the latter one is seen as more conservative. Trzaskowski has been preparing for the elections since 2019 when he challenged Duda in second round of elections and collected over 10 million votes. Sikorski expressed himself ready only some weeks ago and launched a very active pre-campaign around the country. “I am very proud of both of our candidates”, Tusk said, describing the primaries as a healthy exercise in democracy. According to internal polls – published by Tusk just before the voting – both candidates should win against a PiS’s nominee, but support for Trzaskowski is significantly higher. Eventually, on November 22, over 22 thousands of members of four KO parties (PO, Nowoczesna, Polish Initiative, the Greens) casted votes via SMS. Trzaskowski won receiving 75% of the votes and became the official candidate of the biggest democratic block.
PiS took a different approach. Jarosław Kaczyński announced that the candidate would be identified by a party committee on the basis of research. Kaczyński said that the candidate should be "young, tall and good-looking" man with a family who spoke at least two foreign languages and had a good command of English. “In wartime conditions, a woman would not have much of a chance”, he added. The latter commented eliminated former Prime Minister Beata Szydło, who was ready to run. This left about 6 men in the game. Last Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had a big advantage that he could collect money for his campaign, but Kaczyński didn’t believe he could win in the second round after being a head of the government for many years. Hard-right ex-Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek was posing to be a Polish Trump, but data showed he has a strong negative electorate. If any of these two had been chosen, the other fraction could internally sabotage the elections. It was commented that PiS might have opted for uncharismatic right-hand of Kaczyński, Mariusz Błaszczak, who could unite the party, but without chances to win. Eventually, PiS decided to pick a not very well known Karol Nawrocki, president of the National Institute of Remembrance (IPN). Nawrocki is running as an independent candidate, but he has the backing of the PiS. This arrangement is due to legal restrictions that prohibit the president IPN from being a member of a political party or engaging in activities incompatible with the dignity of the office.
By nominating the unknown Nawrocki, PiS continues a pattern it successfully followed in 2015, when it also chose the little-known MEP Andrzej Duda. But Nawrocki does not have an easy start, as currently he is facing backlash after the publication of a report describing his links to criminal and Nazi circles. The main black character in the report was Olgierd L., a gangster convicted of, among other things, pimping and brutal beatings, one of the most famous Polish neo-Nazis of his time and currently a member of biker gangs. Olgierd L. was arrested in early December.
The third in the presidential race are currently – depending on a poll – Speaker of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia and leader of the far-right Confederation Sławomir Mentzen. The first one is supported by his own Poland 2050, but until now the other party in the Third Way block, the PSL, has not endorsed him. It is commented that PSL may support someone else (the party wanted KO to nominate Sikorski who could have been a common candidate of the ruling coalition). Hołownia does not seem very happy in his new role as a candidate, and he is clearly runs only to save his party’s decline in polls. It cannot be excluded that he would withdraw from the race and support Trzaskowski if his role as the Speaker was prolonged (in 2025 he should be replaced by a representative of the Left). Also Mentzen may not appear on ballots, as it is commented that the leader of the nationalistic wing in the Confederaton, Krzysztof Bosak, notes higher support. Bosak overachieved in the 2019 presidential race.
The Left will announce its candidate in mid December. Almost certainly it will be a women, most probably Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Magdalena Biejat who recently had left the hard-left Together party. Together may also present its own candidate, but the support for the party oscillates at ca. 1%. The most popular figure on the left side of the political spectrum, Labor and Family Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk is not willing to run as she knows that most of progressive voters will chose Trzaskowski.
It is expected that one independent new-comer will join the race. Many names are on the market, including a controversial online journalist Krzysztof Stanowski and general Rajmund Andrzejczak. Often in Polish elections a debutant gathers significant support and his endorsement plays an important role in the second round.
Politics
Wrocław Mayor Detained
The mayor of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk, has been detained and charged with getting a public company allegedly to pay a EUR 50.000 bribe for his MBA degree, awarded by infamous private college known until recently as Collegium Humanum. What is more, because of this degree he was permitted to sit on three boards of public companies, gaining significant additional income.
The prosecutor’s office authorized the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) to arrest the mayor and have charged him with organizing an illegal payment for the diploma. The police cancelled all classes that were underway in the college at the time of the raid and shut down the building in central Warsaw as they searched for more evidence. Sutryk commented that he is a victim, that he obtained the MBA legitimately and he paid for it from his own pocket.
PiS is calling for his resignations, but Sutryk does not want to leave. He was an ally of the Civic Coalition (KO), and got its support before his recent re-election. He also chairs the Union of Polish Metropolis, an association of mayors of the biggest cities, including Rafał Trzaskowski of Warsaw, who all come from the democratic opposition. It is commented that Sutryk’s positions may damage Trzaskowski in his presidential campaign, and that KO itself may initiate a referendum to remove him from office.
The story of Sutryk is yet another episode of the grand Collegium Humanum drama. Collegium Humanum, which was founded in 2018, has been nicknamed a “PiS University”. Media were reporting for years that it was a factory of diplomas for PiS politicians and their families who needed MBA certificates to be able to sit on board of state-owned companies when the party was in power. According to 2022 report by Newsweek Polska, Collegium Humanum was functioning as a degree mill as part of an international network of sham seats of learning. According to reports, MBA studies at Collegium Humanum were incredibly cheap and of low quality. Sometimes they were fully fake, and people received diplomas without showing up in this Warsaw-based school at all. Some courses were publicly funded by state agencies. More than 30 individuals have been charged so far in connection with the investigation. One of the most prominent detainees in the case was former PiS MEP Ryszard Czarnecki who charged with peddling influence and money laundering. The CBA detained the college’s top officials, including the rector, Pawel C., charging them with setting up a criminal organization focused on “issuing false documents certifying completion of postgraduate studies” for financial and personal gain. Pawel C. was charged with committing 30 crimes in total, including sexual harassment.
Quickly it came to light that politicians from democratic parties also had links with Collegium Humanum, including MPs and deputy ministers of the current government. Also deputy Speaker of the Sejm from the far-right Confederation, Krzysztof Bosak, started studies at the college. Newsweek Polska reported that the Speaker of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia had studied at Collegium Humanum. Hołownia denied this claim, asserting that although he had applied for admission, he never began the program. Ministry of Defense admitted that as many as 37 officers, including a top general who currently serves as the acting head of the Armed Forces Operational Command obtained MBA diplomas from the infamous school.
Science Minister Dariusz Wieczorek commented: “If the allegations of criminal activity at Collegium Humanum are confirmed, it will be necessary to apply for the possible annulment of diplomas in court”. He added that the scandal might be just the tip of the iceberg since “there currently is no oversight at all of what private postgraduate universities are doing”. Warsaw mayor has ordered officials with degrees from Collegium Humanum to take a new exam by the end of this year if they wish to retain their positions.
In 2024, the college, which has branches in Rzeszów and Poznań, as well as in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Uzbekistan, rebranded as the ‘Varsovia’ University of Business and Applied Sciences, and in March its MBAs ceased to be formally recognized. Currently dozens of students and former students of the Collegium Humanum protest claiming that they are suffering professional consequences because of the scandal. The school stopped issuing diplomas, also for regular students who need their degrees in psychology or pedagogic to get a job or promotion. Many fear their educational achievements are being unfairly undermined by the political scandal and charges against former authorities of the college.
European Affairs
Poland Against the Mercosur Deal
Poland opposed the EU-Mercosur free trade deal in its current form. Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that he supports Polish farmers who claim that the agreement will mean unfair competition with farmers from South American countries.
Polish farmers, just like their colleagues in some other member states, say that the EU will face massive import of products from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (and potentially Bolivia in the future), which are not bound by the strict norms applied to agriculture producers from the EU.
This means that Warsaw supported Paris in its fight against the free trade initiative. French farmers has been showing their dissatisfaction against the plans of the European Commission, recently by bringing tractors in front of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. Recently also governments in Rome and Dublin talked against the deal which might be enough to block it in the Council. The free trade agreement is important for the newly re-appointed European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, since it would be first such free-trade deal in years. It is also strongly supported by Germany, as Berlin hope to export more of its industrial goods, especially cars, to South America.
Poland & Germany
German Patriots Back
German defense ministry has offered to re-deploy Patriot air defense systems to Poland at the beginning of the new year. The equipment and troops could be deployed for up to six months. From January to November 2023, Germany deployed 300 soldiers along with three Patriot units to the base in Zamość, not far from the border with Ukraine.
Economy
The largest office transaction in Europe
Swedish real estate firm Eastnine has acquired 46-storey office tower Warsaw Unit for EUR 280 million from the Belgian company Ghelamco. The acquisition, which is the largest office transaction in Europe this year, increases profit from property management per share by 18%.
Warsaw Unit, completed in 2011, is a landmark office building located in the fast-developing Wola dristrict. The property measures 202 meter above ground and comprises 59.800 sq.m. of leasable area. The property is fully occupied with more than 20 tenants, including the headquarters of Polish insurance company Warta, and offices of Amazon, Moderna, Imperial Tobocco or Panattoni, the largest logistics real estate developer in Europe. Annual rents amount to EUR 18.0 million.
Christmas Spending
According to the Polish Bank Association (ZBP), the average Pole will spend 1,576 PLN on the Christmas holidays, 5.7% more compared to last year. PLN 681 will be used for presents, and it is over 20% more than in 2023; PLN 637 on food (+5%) and PLN 359 on transportation (+13%). The Association notes that while holiday spending continues to rise, the growth rate slowed compared to previous years when inflation reached record highs.
Culture
Scandal at Camerimage
This year’s edition of Camerimage, the leading festival of cinematography held in Toruń, sparked huge controversies which echoed all around the global movie industry. A column in Cinematography World magazine by Marek Żydowicz, the festival director, provoked allegations of misogyny. Żydowicz suggested that the selection in the programme of more female cinematographers and directors could lead to the promotion of “mediocre film productions” at the expense of “works and artists with outstanding artistic achievements.” “Should we reject what is esteemed and valuable just to ‘make space’ for the necessity of social change?”, the director asked. “Whilst festivals like Cannes, Berlin or Venice are criticized for their selections due to succumbing to or promoting [political or ideological trends], Camerimage remains committed to artistic values as the foremost criterion for qualifying and promoting film art”, he concluded.
The industry reaction was immediate, with several key cinematography guilds and filmmakers publicly condemning the remarks. For example, the British Society of Cinematographer wrote in an open letter saying: “We are disheartened and angered by your profoundly misogynistic comments and aggressive tone, which we view as symptomatic of a deep-rooted prejudice. A film festival dedicated to the support and encouragement of cinematography and its practitioners deserves better”. It was supported by its American homologue. Żydowicz responded that he was misunderstood.
American actor Steve McQueen and “The Substance” director Coralie Fargeat, have pulled out of the event over the remarks. Actress Cate Blanchett, chair of the festival jury, and her fellow jury members have released a statement affirming their support for the festival and commitment to “meaningful discussions”.
Żydowicz opened the 32nd edition of the event without any direct mention of his controversial statements. He said that Camerimage has worked with Women in Cinematography to create a diversity and inclusion policy, which was posted on the festival website. Women in Cinematography quickly responded that only 3,1% of films selected for the main competition have been photographed by women in 30 years.
The tense atmosphere at the festival this year has also been heightened by the decision to screen the world premiere of Rust, the Alec Baldwin-starring movie that resulted in the accidental on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
New Chopin’s Waltz
A previously unknown waltz by Fryderyk Chopin has come to light in the archives of New York’s Morgan Library & Museum. The manuscript - dated between 1830 and 1835 - was discovered by curator Robinson McClellan while he was cataloguing new collections. It is titled “Valse”, bears Chopin’s name in cursive at the top, and includes his distinctive bass clef.
The 48-measure waltz in A minor is brief at just 80 seconds in length can be listened here.
Emmy for Pianoforte
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has awarded one of its coveted prizes, Emmies, to Pianoforte. The film received the prestigious statuette in the Arts Programming category.
The documentary, directed by Jakub Piątek, follows young pianists from around the world participating in the Chopin Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious classical music contests, held every five years in Warsaw. For the first time in the competition's history, a film crew was allowed behind the scenes at the National Philharmonic to such a large extent, capturing the tension and emotions of participants from all over the world. The film was also shot in countries of origin of its protagonists, including China and Italy.
It is the first Polish documentary ever to be nominated for Emmy. To date, only two Polish films have been honored by the Academy. In 2007, The Magic Tree won an International Emmy, while Seven Gates of Jerusalem was nominated in 2009. Pianoforte won in its category after being shortlisted alongside the productions Robbie Williams from the United Kingdom, Virgilio from Argentina, and Who I Am Life from Japan.
Watch the trailer of Pianoforte.
Architectural Oscar Goes to Lublin
Lublin’s Metropolitan Station has earned the prestigious World Architecture Festival Award – often referred to as “Architectural Oscars”. In Singapore, the project from the biggest city of the Poland’s East outshone entries from world-renowned firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects.
Opened this year, the Lublin Metropolitan Station, located just by the train station, serves as a transport hub that integrates urban and intercity bus platforms, taxi stands, and bike racks. The World Architecture Festival wrote: “The bus station building–provides examples of activities and solutions that directly and indirectly improve environmental protection and quality.” The station’s roof hosts solar panels and a rainwater recovery system; on the ground there are “anti-smog” paving stones; ground source heat pumps are used for heating.
According to the station’s designer, Tremend, the station blends eco-friendly design with striking architecture and its minimalist structure is enhanced by decorative openwork pillars, inspired by Lublin’s traditional paper-cut art. Additionally, the station has a living “green wall” made up of almost 27.000 plants. Of the EUR 80 million construction costs, almost two thirds came from EU funds.
The World Architecture Festival has been held annually since 2008. Lublin’s victory is even more important for the city in the context of to its recent designation as the 2029 European Capital of Culture (read more in the previous issue of the Newsletter ).
Best Christmas Destination
The Christmas market in Gdańsk has been chosen as the best in Europe in the European Best Destinations competition. It received 92.000 votes out of 750.000 votes casted. “Thank you for every vote you cast and for creating this magical atmosphere with us. This is our joint victory”, commented Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, the mayor of the city.
Last year, in a different ranking, the Christmas market in Kraków was also declared Europe’s best. There are many reasons to visit Poland in December…
Society
“Pathostreamer” Expelled
Poland has expelled a controversial TikToker Vladyslav Oleinychenko, nicknamed “Crawly”, also known as the tiny green wizard, and returned him to Ukraine after his disruptive pranks on the public led to his detainment. He has been described as a “pathostreamer”, which is a name given in Poland to internet content producers who live streams videos of themselves while creating “pathological” content, for example violence or heavy drinking. Crawly gathered two million followers on Instagram and almost 1,5 million on YouTube. His primary channel had been TikTok with ca. 6 million followers, but he was banned from the platform last month for unknown reasons.
Last year, he became viral when he recorded a series of videos in shopping malls where he was climbing on counters in shops, recording clients in toilets and provoking security staff. Recently, Crawly broadcasted when he – together with some teenagers - jumped on cars damaging them. Even though it was released the prank was staged (cars were especially brought to the parking lot), it caused outrage. Public opinion leaders and influencers called authorities to stop this disturbing content. An NGO Centre for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior announced that it had submitted a request to the border guard for the influencer to be expelled from Poland. They said that Crawly “depraves Polish children and publicly insults Poles because of their nationality… He has recently committed several hundred acts that can be classified as violations of the law in force in Poland”.
Prankster was called by Polish authorities a “Russian spy”, returned to Ukraine, and was handed a ten-year ban on entry to the Schengen Area. Nevertheless, shortly after his expulsion he appeared in Prague - riding in a horse carriage - and declared he would take legal actions against Poland.
Polls & Trends
Party Support
United Surveys for wp.pl, 25.11.2024
Civic Coalition 32,5%
PiS 29,9%
Confederation 10,5%
Third Way 9,7%
Left 8,5%
Presidential Race
United Surveys for wp.pl, 25.11.2024
Rafał Trzaskowski 40,4%
Karol Nawrocki 24,5%
Sławomir Mentzen 10,7%
Szymon Hołownia 9,2%
Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk 7,5%
Marek Jakubiak 2,2%