NEWSLETTER
From Poland with Love. October
Topic of the Month
New Migration Strategy
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of a new migration strategy to combat irregular migration. “We know very well how it is used by Lukashenko, Putin… by people smugglers, people traffickers, how this right to asylum is used exactly against the essence of the right to asylum”, Tusk said. “Poland must take back 100% control over who comes to Poland”, he commented, and concluded: "The state must regain 100% of the control over who enters and leaves Poland". Prime Minister announced a possibility of a temporarily and territorial suspension of the right to asylum on the Belarusian border.
Shortly later, the government unfolded the migration strategy for the next five years called “Regain Control. Ensure Security. Comprehensive and Responsible Migration Strategy for Poland for 2025-2030”. It highlights that urgent changes are required when it comes to migration issues due to the increased immigration in several places in Europe: “The experiences of many countries that are the target of increased immigration or have the status of transit countries show that the solutions adopted after World War II and developed over the past 70 years do not fit current realities and require urgent changes”.
According to its authors, the implementation of the strategy aims to create a transparent and secure immigration system that will be fully controlled by state institutions, ensuring both protection and development for Polish citizens and legal immigrants alike. Key objectives of the strategy are the following:
- Migration should be strictly regulated, controlling the purpose of arrival, the scale of influx, and the countries of origin of foreigners.
- A transparent visa policy will be established, based on a selective approach to migration, with clear rules for the entry and stay of foreigners for economic and educational purposes.
- Changes will be introduced in asylum procedures to prevent their misuse in hybrid operations, while considering the humanitarian aspect of situations.
- Foreigners should fill gaps in deficit occupations, while preventing the creation of new challenges for the labor market.
- Foreigners' should have access to the Polish education system, preventing its use solely for obtaining legal residence. Universities will be able to conduct transparent internationalization processes.
For the first time ever, principles of immigrant integration are described in a governmental policy document in Poland. Integration should aim at supporting their inclusion into Polish society while maintaining social cohesion. “The key to this issue is the acceptance by foreigners of the norms and principles in force in Polish society”, writes the government. It has been announced that Poland will set up a network of “foreigner integration centers” (funded by the EU) to provide services to immigrants and help them adapt.
The strategy is an important step forward, although its most controversial part overshadows the bigger picture. Media and public opinion focus only on the suspension of the right to asylum. “These plans are the latest in the Polish government’s efforts to undermine the human rights of refugees and migrants arriving at the Polish-Belarussian border”, commented Amnesty International. The public, however, supports the hard-line.
The strategy is of course defended by members of the Civic Coalition. “If the Schengen Zone is to be maintained, the European Union’s external borders must effectively be controlled”, Foreign Minister of Poland Radosław Sikorski said. But the opposition criticizes is. President Andrzej Duda said he believes that Polish and EU migration policy must be tightened, but reacted negatively to a recent government proposal. He added that the strategy could negatively affect Belarusian opposition figures persecuted by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Tusk responded that Duda's criticism was "stupid" as the policy was aimed at migrants sent deliberately by Belarusian authorities. "There has not been a single case of Belarusian opposition figures crossing the Polish border in groups organized by Lukashenko", Prime Minister said. He also criticized human rights groups opposing the new migration strategy: "Nobody is talking about violating human rights, the right to asylum, we are talking about not granting applications to people who illegally cross the border in groups organized by Lukashenko", he said.
Tusk also declared that he “will demand recognition in Europe for this decision”. Europe Minister Adam Szłapka argued that asylum rights could be lawfully suspended if a country felt its state was in grave danger. The first reaction of the European institution was a comment of the spokesperson of the Commission who stressed that member states have “an obligation to provide access to the asylum procedure”, and Europe should seek a solution to Belarus border situation “without compromising on our values”. Shortly later, however, EU leaders expressed solidarity with Poland underlining that “exceptional situations require appropriate measures”. After the high meeting in Brussels, Tusk commented “I have just come from a meeting with all the most important leaders and what I wanted to achieve, I achieved,” Tusk told journalists. "It went easier than I anticipated," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after a meeting of the Council.
In general, it looks that PiS is disoriented by the Tusk’s decision. Until recently it was PiS who was playing the migration card in the campaign. Now the Prime Minister deprived the right wing populists of their political fuel. Migration looks set to play a key role in a 2025 presidential election in Poland, and voters across the board expect that border security and migration controls are the priority. Whoever the Civic Coalition’s candidate is – today there are two candidates: Sikorski and Warsaw’s mayor Rafał Trzaskoski - he will have to present himself as a person who can guarantee security of Poles better than candidates of PiS and of the far right. Tusk’s new migration agenda is a step in this direction.
Politics
First Governmental Bill on Same-Sex Unions
Polish government has published two draft bills to legalize same-sex civil unions. It is a first governmental bill on the topic in the Polish history. Equality Minister Katarzyna Kotula commented on social media: “It’s official! The draft laws on registered partnerships, which were discussed with non-governmental organizations, have been sent for public and inter-ministerial consultations. This is a very important day for me, because I am handing over to you the result of many months of work from our entire team”.
The bills will make changes in over 200 acts regulating legal situation of same sex couples in many areas. The new legislations would allow couples to have one last name, joint ownership of property and shared assets, as well as rights to inheritance and medical information about their partners.
The bill does not foreseen adoption, even adoption of children of one of partners. According to Kotula, this was a good will gesture towards the conservative members of the ruling coalition. The latter ones from the PSL party deny that the bill is a governmental one and call it merely an initiative of the left-wing minister. PSL does not want to support the bill and is working on its own bill on the “status of the closest persons”. Negotiations within the coalition are ongoing – Civic Coalition, the Left and even the center-right Poland 2050 support the legislation but without PSL the bill will not be approved by the Sejm.
Head of the National Media Council Dismissed
The Sejm has dismissed the head of the National Media Council (RMN), Krzysztof Czabański. RMN was created by PiS to appoint the heads of public media and circumvent the constitutional body responsible for media regulation, the National Council of Radio and TV (KRRiT).
Czabański lead RMN since 2016 and was the patron of politization of the state-owned television and radio, and attacks on private media which were not PiS-leaning. Czabański has never hidden his political affiliation. He has not given up his membership of the Lech Kaczyński Institute, an umbrella of right-wing organizations, chaired by his wife, Barbara Czabańska. The Institute officially owns a media and advertising company, Srebrna, which is a PiS propaganda unit, holding stakes in publishers of the most conservative titles on the Polish market, including Niezależna and Gazeta Polska Codziennie.
“By sitting on the council of the Lech Kaczyński Institute, [Czabański] has an indirect influence on the activities of media service providers”, the motion to dismiss him reads. Civic Coalition MPs that commented Czabański’s position in the Lech Kaczyński Institute violated the law.
PiS called the dismissal of its ally “attack on the media”, but it did not even convince the far right to vote in favor of Czabański. In total 257 MPs from the ruling coalition and the Confederation supported the motion, 187 from PiS were against.
Outrage over Alco-Tubes
A Polish company introduced to shops alcoholic products packaged in soft, colorful pouches resembling children’s fruit purees. OVP, the company behind the alco-tubes, is a firm specializing not in alcohol production, but in healthy mousses. The new product sparked widespread outrage.
“This raises legitimate emotions. This case may affect the safety and health of our children”, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. “There is no room for any negotiations—this type of threat must disappear. And those who allowed this to happen can certainly expect consequences”, he added. "If the products being inspected mislead consumers about their identity through description, presentation, or labeling, inspectors will impose severe financial penalties and inform the relevant authorities", stated the Quality Inspection Authority.
The Polish government announced that it will amend the rules on the advertising and sale of alcoholic beverages. It can count for fast track procedure in the parliament, since the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, called alco-tubes “poor evil”. The Ministry of Health has proposed that alcoholic beverages in containers of 300 ml can be sold only in glass or metal packaging. It has also suggested a ban on the sale of alcohol in forms other than liquid, such as mousse, gel, or crystalline form.
President of OVP said: “We do not disregard the storm that was started by our competitors who are afraid of us. We are not guilty. No one took into account that it [would be perceived as] a product for children”. “We are not breaking the law, and yet we have been targeted, which is unfair. We did not consider for a moment that it was a product for children. Children can also mistakenly drink shampoo, ketchup, or mustard, as well as chemicals packed in sachets”, he added. Nevertheless, OLV withdrew its product from the market really quickly.
Piotr Jabłoński, director of the National Center for Counteracting Addictions, became the fall guy. He paid the highest political price for the scandal, as he was forced to resign. Commentators criticized this decision, as there is nothing he could do to prevent the situation.
Together but Separate
The left-wing Together Party (Razem) has decided to exit the Left parliamentary group and establish its own independent parliamentary circle (15 MPs are necessary to create a group and only 3 to establish a cicle with very limited rights). The party criticized Donald Tusk’s government for not delivering on the social agenda. “The government is failing group after group: workers, women, patients, and the young generation, who have been left at the mercy of banks and developers”, comment party leader Adrian Zandberg. “We all voted for change a year ago. We voted with the hope that the repair of the state would begin. After a year, we have to say honestly that this did not happen”, he concluded.
Therefore, the government lost 4 MPs in the Sejm - the ruling coalition has a majority of 241 seats in the 460-seat chamber - and Together joined PiS and the Confederation in the opposition. They will vote against next year’s draft state budget unless it includes more healthcare spending and pay raises for public sector workers. Tusk commented the party’s decision on X by tweeting that its name, like that of Law and Justice, must have been “invented by someone with an extraordinary sense of humour, a dark one”.
Shortly before the getting-out Congress, 6 MPs, including Senate deputy Speaker Magdalena Biejat left the party. These 6 announced that they disagreed with the party’s inability of being constructive and cooperative. They decided to stay in the Left group and support the government. While the “ruling coalition [is] far from our dreams…we believe that it is our responsibility to strengthen the voice of The Left”, their statement reads. It is commented that Biejat may become the Left’s candidate in 2025 presidential elections.
The Together Party was created in 2015 as a leftist alternative to the center-left SLD party. It became the most social party present in the main stream politics in Poland, cooperating on the international level with the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), a pan-European movement, founded by Yanis Varoufakis. In the 2015 parliamentary election it received 3,6% of the vote, below the 5% threshold, which helped PiS winning majority of the seats in the Sejm. In 2019, Razem won 6 seats as a member of the Left Alliance.
More United Right
After months of discussions, PiS merged with the Sovereign Poland (SP) party. Since 2014, both parties were in a permanent coalition, known as the United Right, and Sovereign Poland took part in PiS governments.
For a long time, Sovereign Poland has been very critical about Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Access of SP politicians to PiS will strengthen the anti-Morawiecki camp and reinforce the most conservative wing of the party. This may be crucial in the process of nominating PiS’s candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. It is well known that the until-recently deputy leader of SP, Patryk Jaki MEP, was willing to represent PiS in this race. But he is not trusted by Jarosław Kaczyński. SP’s support may help one of the hardliners within PiS, e.g. ex education minister Przemysław Czarnek, to win the nomination.
Sovereign Poland was formed in 2012 by a group of politicians led by the former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro who broke away from Kaczyński following that party’s election defeat in 2011. SP became the most radical, conservative and anti-European part of the United Right. Between 20215 and 2023 it had over a dozen MPs, necessary for PiS to govern. In December 2023, Ziobro was diagnosed with cancer and has been de facto replaced by Jaki. Ziobro is currently under investigation – by prosecutors and a special parliamentary committee - into alleged misuse of funds.
Economy
Fourth-Largest Offering in Europe This Year
Żabka, the biggest Polish convenience store chain, made its debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, offering 448 million shares and raising PLN 6,99 billion (ca. EUR 1,6 billion). The debut was marked by a 7% stock price rise. It is the largest public offering in Poland since 2020, one of the biggest in the history of the WSE, and the fourth-largest offering in Europe this year.
Since the business was founded in 1998, Żabka has grown to become Europe’s largest chain of convenience stores with more than 10.500 physical stores and 90% brand recognition, with a distinct focus in recent years on digitalization, developing meal solution apps, an eGrocery business, and autonomous, unmanned, AI-powered Żabka Nano stores. Żabka Group sees an overall market opportunity for approximately 19.500 Żabka stores in Poland, and ca. 4,000 stores in Romania, a market it entered earlier this year under the brand name Froo. The group’s sales to end customers increased 23% to PLN 22,775 billion (ca. EUR 225 billion) in 2023, compared to PLN 18,53 billion (EUR 4,25) in 2022. Similarly, revenue increased by 24%, to PLN 19,806 (ca. EUR 4,5 billion) billion in 2023.
CEO Tomasz Suchański emphasized Żabka’s strategic goals to double customer sales by 2028 and open 1.000 stores annually in Poland and Romania. With 10,000+ franchise stores, Żabka continues to innovate with projects like autonomous stores and international expansion under the Froo brand.
Culture
MSN Opened
The new building of Warsaw's Museum of Modern Art (MSN) officially opened to public. Even though the collection is not the displayed there, the building has became a new – controversial – icon of the city, and was visited by 50.000 people during one weekend.
The opening marked the culmination of a two-decade-long struggle to establish a dedicated home for the display of contemporary art. Until now, Poland’s capital, unlike some other cities across the county, did not have a proper museum focusing on modern art. In this case, not only the building is new, but also the entire collection. MSN director Anna Mytkowska commented that the collection “is still very young and strives to address the challenges of the present, emancipation of diverse minorities fighting for visibility, the climate crisis, sexual and racial equality.” Founded in 2005, MSN Warsaw primarily acquires art made after 1989, when communism was overthrown in Poland. It has operated across a number of different spaces, including most recently in a pavilion beside the Vistula river.
The building sits just next to the gigantic Palace of the Science and Culture, a symbol of the Stalinist era. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski said the museum's opening is a “historic moment for Warsaw", adding that the whole project, which will later include a theatre, would help to create a new city centre no longer dominated by the communist mega building.
MSN was designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners and led by director Katie Bennett. It cost around USD 145 million and entirely funded by the city of Warsaw. Phifer’s team was inspired by Warsaw’s even, gray light.
AI Avatar Interviews a Dead Poet in Public Radio
OFF Radio Krakow, an online and DAB+ subsidiary of the state-owned Radio Krakow, has announced it was going all-in on AI. All shows were hosted by a trio of Gen Z AI avatars, Emi, Kuba, and Alex, all with their own biographies and personalities created with help of journalists.
One of the first shows published on the OFF Radio Kraków site was an interview between poet and Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska and Emi. They chatted about this year's Nobel Prize in literature. Szymborska died in 2012, before the first translation of Han Kang into Polish. It should be stressed, that the use of Szymborska’s voice was approved by her foundation.
OFF Radio Kraków director claimed this is a temporary situation, an experiment, but this decision was seen as very provocative and was broadly criticized, especially by journalists who were afraid this is only the first step before they will all lose jobs. Additionally, 20.000 people signed a petition against this move of the state-owned broadcaster. "We want to consider what effects the development of artificial intelligence may have on culture, media, journalism, society", editor-in-chief Marcin Pulit commented. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio, and journalism? We will seek answers to this question", he added. The experiment was ended after a week.
Society
Succession
Poles have been watching a billionaire family drama commenting it was better than the hit HBO show “Succession”. The man in the middle of the story is Zygmunt Solorz, who figures at number eight in the 2024 Forbes magazine list of the richest Poles, with a fortune of PLN 7,7 billion (ca. EUR 1.8 billion).
Last month, Zygmunt Solorz’s children sent a letter to managers from the family empire, voicing concern over alleged attempts to take over the firm and their difficulties contacting their father due to his health and conflict with his current wife. According to the sons, their father does not take the decisions about the company’s future and most of the documents are signed by his Justyna Kulka. Kulka is vice-president of the board, appears in 40 positions within Solorz’s company registers and has been associated with the company for 12 years. The sons comment that they don’t know where their father is and they can’t reach him on phone, as Kulka always answers his phone. During one of the recent shareholder meeting, the billionaire briefly joined via video, sitting beside his lawyer at an undisclosed location (most probably Cyprus), and had trouble speaking clearly.
The Solorzs’ succession drama is fascinating to the general public but also concerning for state authorites. His empire consists not only of ZE PAK, the largest private energy group in Poland with plans to build a first power plant in the country, but also of Polsat Cyfrowy, one of two biggest media consortia which includes the oldest Polish private TV channel, Polsat, and Plus GSM, one of the biggest telecoms.
Media outlets owned by Solorz were always trying to keep equally close to all parties, benefiting from good relations with every government. A lot has change during the PiS rule, where Polsat did not hide its sympathy towards PiS. Dorota Gawryluk, who became the main news anchor of the group, is known for her conservative views and was listed among potential right-wing candidates in the 2025 presidential elections. It is commented that the person responsible for this right turn was Justyna Kulka, and her victory in the family conflict will change Polsat into a PiS TV.
Cyfrowy Polsat, has lost hundreds of millions of zloty in value after reports emerged. A court in Vaduz, Liechtenstein’s capital, will decide the dispute over who manages Solorz's foundations. The issue is deciding which of the billionaire’s statements is valid. Whether it is the one from August 2, 2024, when Solorz notarized the transfer of the foundation's management to the children, or the one from the next day, when he rescinded his statement, indicating that he acted under the influence of a mistake. The Vaduz court’s decision will be crucial in the succession. There is no appeal from it, and it will determine, among other things, whether there will be changes in the position of president of Polsat.
Less Money for Milk Bars
Polish government is planning to cut subsidies for milk bars (bary mleczne). The 2025 budget draft earmarks PLN 61,4 million (ca. EUR 14,1 million), down from PLN 71 million (EUR 16,3 million) this year. Milk bars are affordable cafeterias serving classic Polish food, in particular soups and pierogis. They are important part of the culinary landscape of Polish cities, being a meeting point of people coming from all segments of the society.
The finance ministry explains: “The amount of subsidy secured in the draft budget act for 2025 was estimated on the basis of the demand for the subsidy for milk bars reported by the Tax Administration Chamber (IAS)”. In other words, milk bars were not able to spend fully what they received from the state in 2024. In total, some 70 companies use this subsidy.
PiS cannot really attack the Tusk government on the cut, as in 2023 they spent only PLN 34 millions (ca. EUR 7,8 million) for milk bars, and foreseen 41 million (EUR 9,4 million) for 2024. Earlier during the PiS government, this budget line oscillated around 20 million (EUR 4,6 million).
Even though Poles associate them with the communist era, when their network was the largest, their origins are in 19th century. In 1896, the local farmer Stanisław Dłużewski established the first milk bar in Warsaw. They became wide spread after the Word War I, and developed in the post-1945 period as exemplification of socialist ideas connecting affordability with communality. Until now most of the dishes served there are vegetarian, as since communism the state subsidy does not cover meat.
Poland & Germany
Barometer 2024
Poles still see Germans largely through the lens of historical conflict, especially World War II (one in five Poles see Germans as invaders), although this association is diminishing. Germany is poorly perceived by more and more Poles, but the image of the western neighbor as a modern country with a strong economy still prevails. For Germans, on the other hand, Poland is primarily a country that is attractive for tourism, data from the latest Poland-Germany Barometer survey shows.
According to the report, Germany's worse image than a year ago can be explained, among other things, by media relations about Germany's economic difficulties, the rise of right-wing populism and migration policy. Polish opinions about Germany, however, are strongly influenced by the respondents' political convictions. Positive opinions about Germany are expressed more often by voters of the Civic Coalition than by supporters of PiS, but it doesn’t mean that the latter are in general negative.
Although in 2024 Germans have better opinion on Poland when it comes to the functioning of the state and European politics, many of the respondents do not know much about its eastern neighbor. The predominant image of Poland is that of a country attractive to tourists (56% of Germans chose this option). Respondents from the former GDR see Poland better than their compatriots from the West, which can be explain by the fact that they actually know Poland better, visited the eastern neighbor and met people.
Almost half of respondents in both countries believe cooperation within the Weimar Triangle should be strengthened. Both groups of respondents cite energy security and a stronger European defense policy as key areas for cooperation. 68% of Poles and 60% Germans see Russia as a military threat to their country. Support for economic sanctions against Russia is higher among Poles than Germans – 75% to 58%. Only about half of Poles believe that strengthening the German military would also increase Poland's security, while in on the other side of the Oder, almost 2/3 believe that a stronger Bundeswehr would increase the security of allies, including Poland.
“Polish-German Barometer“ is a project which regularly collects and publishes the opinions of Poles and Germans about the condition of Polish-German relations and about current challenges. The Institute of Public Affairs has been conducting this research since the year 2000 in cooperation with the Office of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Poland and the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation. The Deutsches Polen-Institut is a project partner since 2020.
Polls & Trends
Party Support
IBRiS for Rzeczpospolita, 25-26.10.2024
Civic Coalition 31,3%
PiS 29,6%
Third Way 9,8%
Confederation 9,4%
Left 8,6%