The government in Warsaw is considered to be one of the most conservative in the EU. In the country with practically no regulations for LGBT+ community, Law and Justice – the ruling party – manages to find the way to limit their rights even further.
On June 3, 2017, the delegates of the Extraordinary Convention of .Nowoczesna have endorsed Paweł Rabiej – the co-founder of .Nowoczesna – as the person who would run for the office of the Warsaw mayor. Thus, .Nowoczesna has become the first party to officially present a candidate.
Last Tuesday, the minister said in the parliament that UNESCO “illegally” added the Polish Białowieża primeval forest to the World Heritage list (sic!). Luckily, Polish activists and the friends of the Białowieża forest from all over the world are still fighting.
Unfortunately, in 2016, the populist Law and Justice government decided to reverse the reform – the pseudo-economic rationale was the infamous lump of labor fallacy. They wrongly claimed that lowering the retirement age would be a perfect tool to fight youth unemployment – retiring seniors would (in their opinion) leave their jobs for young Poles.
After decades of optimism we should start imagining Europe without the EU. If we do not fix that project and make it successful, it may turn out to be mortal. The EU does not need a major structural overhaul or another treaty change. It needs a change of attitudes.
Polish air pollution problem is largely the result of the country’s addiction to coal. Not only Polish electricity, but also heating are highly dependent on this fuel. No one knows it for sure, but estimated 5 million heating stoves are still in use, with around 3 million that fail to meet any emission norms.
Law and Justice found a solution to how to seize power in Warsaw in 2018. The party proposed to create so-called Great Warsaw by adding 32 surrounding municipalities to the city. New Warsaw will have area bigger than Paris or London.
The EU is currently going through a multidimensional crisis and loses its defenders: both in the societies and among politicians. This trend is reversible, but we need to offer fresh solutions and make Europe a great dream again. In Warsaw, at the crossroads of East and West, we are perfectly positioned to do it.
Azerbaijan, an oil-rich autocracy perched on the Western shores of the Caspian Sea, is determined to teach a lesson to its unruly youth who increasingly break long-standing taboos in pursuit of democratic freedoms. But the policy of sticks alone may no longer work.
Our freedom is fragile and must be protected. Polish citizens must feel safe in the modern world that does not look safe at all. Recent years show that threats come from many directions, the most ominous ones from the East and from the South. Terrorism in its broadest sense has become the biggest challenge for the Western world.
