Comments on: When is Poland going to grow up!?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:04:55 +0000

Hey, thanks for the post! I was googling this because I wrote on the same topic (http://barnabasnagy.com/2009/03/01/eu-emergency-summit-over-economic-an-protectionism/) and then I found you. Keep up the good work!

By: Sylwia

Sylwia — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:58:57 +0000

After all the mess I think it wasn’t about Kaczyński’s wish to influence the summit in anyway, only about making a show in Poland. The thing is that the competencies of our president are very limited, which, in my personal opinion, is a very good thing, but Kaczyński dreams of making it something more like the American presidency. There’s no problem with the constitution, and it was always clear that our president can nearly nothing. It’s Kaczyński who wishes to interpret it differently to have a starting point for further negotiations. He made the fuss in order to awake such reactions like “it’s a president and he’s owed due respect”.

I’m not sure whether Tusk should have behaved differently. After all it were the president’s people who informed the media. So there was a situation where the president said he wanted to go, and Tusk told him “no, thank you”, and Kaczyński took it to press instead of continuing to discuss it in private. It’s like a blackmail, isn’t it? If Tusk agreed at once Kaczyński would always use the same tactic. That’s not to say he won’t use it in the future. I think we can expect a repetition at the next summit.

@ Ania: I understand that if you voted for Kaczyński you prefer him have his say, but the dilemma is about a rule, and not one’s favourite candidate. If we change the constitution it’ll mean we’ll allow just one man, no matter what kind of freak he is, to decide about our country without any possibility of opposition. I thank you, but I don’t want to end up like Russia or Belarus.

As for now the president isn’t a king, and if anyone deserves due respect here those are the citizens of Poland. The president is supposed to represent all of them, and not just those who like him and his brother’s party. By not allowing the government, chosen by the majority of Polish citizens, to govern the country he doesn’t respect Polish people.

By: adthelad

adthelad — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:22:29 +0000

Dziennik reports that Sarkozy jumped a couple of points in the agenda and dealt with the Gorgia question briefly whilst Kaczynski had left the sitting(to deal with passes – a deliberate diversion?). It would be good to know if this is true. It doesn’t mean Sarkozy deliberately wanted to bypass Kaczyński but it doesn’t mean he didn’t want to either. France has a particular relationship with Russia. I read some time back in the Times the information that France has a long standing treaty with Russia where it cannot vote against Russia’s international interests – and does this frequently at the UN by abstaining where necessary. Germany, France and Russia are part of a tripartite pact which has them meet regularly to agree policy (wish I could quote you a reference but I can’t). I can well imagine Kaczyński much more hard line being somewhat troublesome to certain national interests.
Whatever it looks like a bit of a cock up either way and a personal blow to Kaczyński as it means he was unable to try to influence the EU on its stance with regards to Russia.

By: scatts

scatts — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:34:37 +0000

Interesting – http://www.warsawvoice.pl/newsX.php/7080/p/1048622742

Now it appears that Kaczynski didn’t even attend the discussion on Georgia that was, allegedly, the whole reason he attended in the first place!

Is it me, or has the president just made an ass of himself?

By: Mona

Mona — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:09:45 +0000

Kaczynski and Tusk are wrangling over competencies since last October, when Tusk’s liberal Civic Platform won the parliamentary elections (Kaczynski didn’t even ask Tusk to form a new government then). The Polish constitution does not clearly delineate responsibilities when it comes to foreign policy so Tusk and Kaczynski are now each trying to claim this area for themselves.
Nevertheless it is really embarrassing for Poland. Kaczynski’s demonstration of power (he leased a jet for himself in order to go to Brussels) looks like an absurd. It doesn’t really serve Poland’s image and interests…

By: anglopole

anglopole — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:46:51 +0000

Well, what you are writing about, Scatts, is exactly what effectively erases any nostalgia I might ever feel for Poland…. :-(

I don’t often read news from Poland and when I do… things are always the same, as one of our great writers put it: ‘rokosze i sejmiki’ = heated arguments, meaningless gatherings, empty words…. you name it. Sad!

By: Tomek

Tomek — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:18:33 +0000

Not to keep on backing you up, Scatts, but I’m also perplexed by the attitudes expressed in Ania’s and Adthelad’s posts. We are talking about a president, not a monarch. Also, ‘racist’???
On a side note, what’s with the capitalization of the word ‘president’?

By: scatts

scatts — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:00:20 +0000

Ania, I’m sorry but I’m not sure I understand your point. Unless your point is that Mr Kaczynski, as the president of Poland, should be allowed to do whatever he likes?

Is that you getting in twice up there, adthelad?

Is this debate is split down party lines? Those who like Donald versus those who like the Duck?

What I need to look up is:

1/ Was Kaczynski invited to this summit by the people who organised it?
2/ If not, why not?
3/ If not, why did he go?

By: Ania

Ania — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:22:02 +0000

oh – that was @scatts

By: Ania

Ania — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:21:21 +0000

You are getting this wrong. It’s not about letting the President anything. This function is the highest representative office for all of us. That includes me. Therefore, your apparent urge to be on the side of “letters”, permitters, is just revealing your true attitude. This is the same attitude that declared “Poland has joined Europe” – while that is simply where she is. This is racist, but we are not skilled in using your own PC against you – yet.