They certainly did, although for once I doubt it was their meddling in particular that elected Nawrocki, as hard as it may be to believe that someone with so many anti-qualities could be elected president.

And you’d be right. In fact, that’s what a lot of liberal/centrist candidates tend to do nowadays - pander to the far-right, only to give said far-right credibility to the voters whilst losing their own, alienating left-wing voters and not even really gaining the far-right’s vote.

KO (more accurately PO, Tusk’s long-time party that makes up 90% of KO) in particular never had that much credibility to begin with and with the current government, regardless if it’s their fault or not, the government hadn’t really done that many huge actions in the country. Sometimes it really is still PiS’s and Duda’s fault, but that imo is still no excuse to not at least try to push the legislative to show people who’s in the wrong; other times it can be the coalition mates, making the government look even less effective.

That being said, Gen Z voting for the nationalist was no doubt due to Konf leader Mentzen and due to Kanał Zero. Both of which are very youth-oriented, the former being a far-right ultra-capitalist 1st round presidential candidate and the latter being a popular YouTube channel that for a year straight since its inception has shaped public opinion against the government and in favor of the right.

And with all that being said, I might want to consider moving. A PiS+Konf government will more than likely annihilate the already sparsely funded public institutions.

You have no idea. A PiS+Konf government (and that’s what’s likely coming, because president Nawrocki will likely block every single meaningful reform by our current government) would effectively mean GOP rule in Poland. That would be a nightmare scenario for any European state.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced his support for conservative opposition Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki ahead of Sunday’s run-off election, in which Nawrocki is competing against government-aligned centrist Rafał Trzaskowski.

His endorsement comes two days after Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, also called on Poles to vote for Nawrocki and described Trzaskowski as “an absolute train wreck of a leader”.

Noem’s declaration of support came during CPAC Poland, the first time that the prominent US conservative conference has been held in the country. Orbán’s remarks came today at the Hungarian offshoot of CPAC.

“On Sunday, presidential elections will be held in Poland,” said Orbán, quoted by Polsat News. “Long live Nawrocki!”

The Hungarian leader then pointed to Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s former conservative prime minister, and said: “If you want to know what true liberal democracy looks like, ask him. Unheard-of things are happening in Poland. All European rules and principles are being trampled. And Brussels supports it.”

Morawiecki and his national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party have accused Poland’s current government, led by former European Council President Donald Tusk, of violating democracy and the rule of law.

Elsewhere in his speech, Orbán announced a “patriotic plan” to “transform” the European Union. “We want to take Europe back from migrants. We want a Christian culture, schools based on national principles,” he declared.

Orbán’s Fidesz party has long been closely aligned with PiS, which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 but is now in opposition. Though Nawrocki is technically an independent, PiS is supporting his presidential bid.

PiS’s relationship with Orbán has, however, faced some criticism in Poland, in particular due to the Hungarian leader’s close relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. That led relations between PiS and Fidesz to cool after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, though they have subsequently warmed again.

After Orbán’s endorsement of Nawrocki today, a number of figures from Poland’s ruling coalition, which contains pro-EU parties ranging from left to centre-right, posted pictures on social media of Orbán and Putin together.

“Congratulations on the support from Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” foreign minister Radosław Sikorski wrote to Nawrocki, before asking: “Will you pursue a similar policy towards Putin and the European Union?”

Last week, Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland accused Nawrocki of “playing into Russia’s hands” by declaring his opposition to Ukrainian membership of NATO.

Nawrocki has also called for measures to ensure that Poles receive preferential access to public services ahead of immigrants, the majority of whom are Ukrainians.

Polls suggest that Sunday’s presidential election run-off will be an extremely tight race between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki. The winner will succeed current President Duda when his second and final five-year term in office ends in August.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has promised a “zero tolerance, ruthless” approach to hooliganism at tonight’s UEFA Conference League football final between Chelsea and Real Betis in the Polish city of Wrocław, following clashes between British and Spanish fans.

Yesterday evening, at around 7:30 p.m., groups of rival fans began throwing chairs and bottles at one another outside bars on one of Wrocław’s historic market squares.

“The English fans didn’t like the fact that the Spanish fans were sitting in an Irish pub, which means they sympathise with the Irish,” Tomasz Sikora, a spokesman for Wrocław city hall, told Polsat News. “That’s where the whole issue came from.”

“The police reacted immediately, which prevented further escalation of the conflict,” added Łukasz Dutkowiak, a spokesman for the local police. “The fans scattered in different directions and activities aimed at identifying them are still ongoing.”

Another clash then broke out around 11 p.m. involving around ten people. “A 31-year-old Spanish citizen, who was the most aggressive [among them], was detained,” while other participants ran away, said Dutkowiak, quoted by broadcaster TVN.

Separately, three other people from Spain were arrested for dismantling Conference League final flags. Sikora said that, in total, police made 515 interventions on Tuesday, the kind of level normally seen on New Year’s Eve.

Monika Kaleta, a spokeswoman for local police, told Eurosport that they are “expecting a possible escalation of clashes” today around the final, which begins at 9 p.m. local time in Wrocław’s 43,000-capacity Tarczyński Arena.

Around 2,000 police officers have been deployed to the city for the final, including many drafted in from other parts of Poland. Local newspaper Gazeta Wrocławska, however, notes that most of the thousands of fans who have come to Wrocław for the match are behaving peacefully.

In a statement issued on social media on Wednesday afternoon, Tusk “thanked the police for their decisive actions against the hooligans in Chelsea and Betis shirts in Wrocław”.

“Zero tolerance for violence on our streets!” he added. “We warn you: if necessary, the police will be even more ruthless today!”

The ancestors of today’s Poles would definitely attest to that.

You have:

1. Wars during the Middle Ages, including the first partition attempt with Germany way back in the X century
2. Frequent meddling in Poland-Lithuania during the state’s final century
3. Partitions of Poland-Lithuania
4. Harshest suppresions of Poles of any of the 3 partitioners for 123 years (minus Napoleonic France’s puppet state), mainly through Russification
5. Pitting Poles against each other during WW1
6. Yet more fighting shortly after said war because of Soviets wanting to annex Belarus and Ukraine and establish a puppet communist state in Poland
7. Another parition, mass murder of Polish inteligentsia (see: Katyń massacre), NKVD’s individual murders of citizens and mass expulsions of Poles from Polish lands to distant parts of Russia/USSR (i.e. Siberia) during WW2
8. Puppeteering Poland during Stalin’s reign and only allowing for a slightly less dependent government after his death
9. Use of Russian gas as political leverage
10. Continued disinformation campaigns, military exercises near the Polish border and FSB operations against Poland to this day

Poland’s border guard has joined police in raids around the country targeting illegal immigration. As a result of the action, almost 400 proceedings have been launched to deport foreigners without the right to be in Poland.

The crackdown came days after a declaration last week by Poland’s interior minister and the mayor of Warsaw of a “zero tolerance” approach to crimes committed by immigrants, following media reports of a growing wave of “imported crime”.

The raids – which took place on 13-14 February but which were only announced this week – were part of a broader, nationwide police action targeting people wanted on arrest warrants. Over 26,000 police officers carried out checks at over 32,000 locations.

As a result, 1,474 people were detained, including 204 foreigners, announced the national police headquarters on Wednesday this week. That in turn led to the police in 166 cases applying to the border guard to expel foreigners from Poland.

In a separate statement, the border guard revealed that 1,000 of its officers had participated in the raids, with the “aim of combating illegal migration”. They carried out over 2,400 checks on the legality of the presence of foreigners in Poland, leading to the launching of proceedings against almost 400 of them.

Among those whose documents were checked, the largest number, over 1,000, were Ukrainians, who are by far Poland’s largest immigrant group. The next largest numbers were Georgians (264), another large immigrant group, and Colombians (204), whose numbers have been growing rapidly in recent years.

Among those against whom deportation proceedings were launched, Ukrainians account for 180 cases and Georgians and Colombians almost 60 each, said the border guard.

Most deportation cases were brought due to the finding that the foreigners were not staying legally in Poland, but in three instances they were initiated due to a threat to state security or public safety.

“This action is the beginning of regular activity by the [uniformed] services, the primary goal of which is to ensure the security in our country,” wrote the police. “It is also a signal to those who want to come to Poland to conduct criminal activities: they will be under the watchful eye of the Polish services.”

The outcome of the raids was also hailed by interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak, who wrote on social media that they show “we will not allow foreign gangs to enter Poland”.

Earlier this month, Siemoniak noted that 5% of all people suspected of carrying out crimes in Poland last year were foreigners. However, the data he presented also indicated that immigrants make up 8% of Poland’s population.

In recent years, Poland has experienced a wave of immigration that is unprecedented in its history and among the highest of any country in Europe. It has issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the EU than has any other member state. Meanwhile, asylum applications rose to a new high in 2024.

Earlier this month, Rzeczpospolita, a leading newspaper, reported that Georgian immigrants, in particular, have been responsible for a return to the kind of violent organised crime that was common in the 1990s during the post-communist transition.

Last year, Poland’s government approved a tough new migration strategy aimed at “taking back control” of the country’s borders. It includes a proposal to suspend the right of those who have entered the country irregularly to claim asylum.

Poland’s parliament has approved a bill allowing the government to suspend the right to claim asylum for people who cross the border irregularly as part of the “instrumentalisation of migration” by a foreign state.

The measure has been criticised as a violation of European and international law by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But it received overwhelming support from Polish MPs in both the ruling coalition and the opposition.

The 386 votes in favour in the 460-seat Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, included all or the vast majority of MPs from the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL) and centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050), which are part of the ruling coalition.

They were joined by all or most MPs from the two main right-wing opposition parties: the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja).

Only 38 MPs voted against it, mainly from The Left (Lewica), which is part of the ruling coalition, and Together (Razem), a small left-wing party.

The bill now passes to the upper-house Senate, which can delay but not block legislation, then on to President Duda, a PiS ally, who can sign it into law, veto it, or pass it to the constitutional court.

Poland received a record number of asylum claims last year amid a renewed crisis at the Belarus border, where since 2021 tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – have been trying to cross with the help and encouragement of the Belarusian authorities.

In response, Prime Minister Donald Tusk proposed in September a tough new migration strategy, including allowing the temporary and partial suspension of the right to claim asylum. Those measures were subsequently approved by his government in December.

The bill approved by the Sejm this evening would enact parts of Tusk’s strategy by amending the asylum law to introduce a new term into Poland’s legal lexicon: “instrumentalisation of migration.”

That is a phrase regularly used by Polish and other European authorities to describe the deliberate manner in which Belarus and Russia have used migrants and asylum seekers in an attempt to destabilise EU countries.

Under the Polish bill, the interior ministry would be empowered to temporarily restrict the right to claim international protection if instrumentalisation of migration is taking place, if it “constitutes a serious and real threat to security”, and if the restriction of asylum rights is necessary to counter the threat.

The legislation also specifies that the government’s actions must “aim to limit the rights of foreigners intending to apply for international protection to the least possible extent”, reports news and analysis website OKO.press.

Moreover, certain categories of people must be allowed to claim asylum even if the measures are in place, including minors, pregnant women, people who require special healthcare, people deemed at “real risk of harm” if returned over the border, and citizens of the country that is carrying out the instrumentalisation.

An amendment accepted today by parliament before the bill was passed allows an entire group that includes minors – such as a family – to submit an asylum claim. Previously, only the minors would have been allowed to.

The interior ministry’s regulation implementing the suspension of asylum rights must define the area in which it will apply and how long it will apply for (up to 60 days, after which it can only be renewed with the approval of the Sejm).

Tusk has argued that the measures are necessary because existing asylum rules were not designed to accommodate the deliberate instrumentalisation of migration by hostile states.

However, human rights groups have declared the measures to violate not only international law but Poland’s own constitution. They also say it will cause real harm to vulnerable asylum seekers, who will face being pushed back over the border into Belarus.

Well over 100 people are believed to have died around the borders between Belarus and EU member states since the beginning of the crisis in 2021.

A Ukrainian man has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a Polish court for preparing to carry out acts of sabotage on behalf of Russia.

The 51-year-old, who can only be identified as Serhiy S. under Polish privacy law, was detained by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) in January 2024 on suspicion of working for the Russian security services.

He was accused of planning arson attacks on various buildings in Wrocław, Poland’s third-largest city, including a paint factory in close proximity to a fuel warehouse belonging to state oil giant Orlen.

In a ruling today – which can still be appealed – Serhiy S. was convicted of participating in an international organised criminal group and planning sabotage activities in Poland on behalf of foreign intelligence services.

Among the evidence against him were camera recordings and mobile phone records that showed him in close proximity to the paint plant, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The suspect himself – who fled Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and had previously stayed in Germany – had acknowledged accepting an order received online to set fire to the building. But he claimed he had no intention to actually do it, instead aiming to defraud money from the person offering it.

The judge, Marcin Myczkowski, rejected Serhiy S.’s not-guilty plea, however. In handing down the sentence, Myczkowski noted that, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland and other European countries have faced a wave of actions aimed at destabilising them, including acts of sabotage.

“The idea was to convince the public that it was not worth supporting Ukraine, to create the impression that the authorities of Western countries were not coping,” said Myczkowski, quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Serhiy S. was among those who had been “instructed and directed” to carry out such actions, said the judge. He expressed hope that the eight-year prison sentence would “signal to the accused and people like him that it is not worth it and that the Polish state is acting”.

Both Myczkowski and one of the prosecutors in the case, Marcin Kucharski, noted that Serhiy S. is an example of a new kind of agent used by foreign services.

“Instead of expensive, highly qualified agents trained for a long time, we are dealing with people who are ready to do anything for four thousand dollars,” said Kucharski, quoted by PAP.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has arrested a number of people accused of spying for or carrying out sabotage on behalf of Russia and Belarus. It has also accused Moscow and Minsk of orchestrating a migration crisis on Poland’s border and of carrying out cyberattacks.

In December 2023, 14 members of a Russian spy network who planned to derail a Ukraine aid train were sentenced in Poland to between one and six years in prison.

Poland has also suggested that it is likely Russia was behind a wave of sabotage cases last year, including a fire that destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping centre. In October, four people were detained in Poland on suspicion of involvement in sending hidden incendiaries via parcel delivery services.

Last week, two Russian men were sentenced to five and a half years in prison for place restriction posters for Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group in Polish cities.

Never even thought of that somehow.

Anyway, it’s kinda sad that “hard-left” social democracy is the furthest left we have in parliament while the far-right already has ultranationalists, monarchists, anti-vaxxers, laissez-fairists and Putin panderers all in one, including in their parliamentary club of 16 people (well now 15 because their biggest nutcase Braun got kicked - not because of his death threats, vandalism or blatant anti-semitism but because of sabotage against Mentzen, their official presidential candidate).

Nuclear+renewables is probably the best solution

Meanwhile, everyone in r/worldnews (the mods there perma-ban people over derailing comments btw) say the woman was lying

It’s still funny how PiS have used pretty much the entire state apparatus (public media, state companies, outright bribing rural populations to vote*) and still de facto lost.

*which as a side note some have claimed to have been another source of KO and TD votes

the former

Before you comment, this is the full announcement:

Announcement of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage

Due to the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland to suspend financing of public media, I decided to put into liquidation the companies Telewizja Polska S.A. and Polskie Radio S.A. and Polish Press Agency S.A.

In the current situation, such action will ensure the continued operation of these companies, carry out the necessary restructuring and prevent layoffs of employees in the above-mentioned companies. companies employees due to lack of financing.

The state of liquidation may be withdrawn at any time by the owner.

Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz Minister of Culture and National Heritage

And now some context from the article:

Today, Duda proposed his own alternative bill that would have maintained other government spending in the budget – such as the public sector pay rises – but did not include the funds for public media.

However, this morning, the speaker of parliament, Szymon Hołownia, who is one of the leaders of the new ruling coalition, said that he would not convene an early sitting of the house to discuss the president’s proposal, as Duda had requested.

This afternoon, before Sienkiewicz’s decision was published, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the cabinet had decided that the 3 billion zloty previously earmarked for public media would instead be spent on cancer treatment and mental healthcare for children.

Tusk added that Duda’s veto had forced the culture minister to make certain decisions, which would be done “calmly and rationally”.

However, Sienkiewicz’s decision was condemned by figures linked to PiS and to the former management of public media. Samuel Pereira, a senior editor at TVP under PiS, said that the “usurpers are trying to bypass the National Court Register” – the body responsible for validating Sinkiewicz’s previous decision.

Shortly afterwards, President Duda’s chief of staff, Marcin Mastalerek, published a statement declaring the decision to put public media into liquidation as “an admission of defeat by the government”.

Maybe. Honestly I’m just glad Gex is getting any kind of remaster.

I personally just feel indifferent to the merger. Definitely won’t say Microsoft has been the most guilty of game exclusivity, considering Sony have been pushing timed exclusivity on PlayStation. Nintendo doesn’t have take that scrutiny only because their main catalouge are 1st party games.

That said, it sucks that the only way to make someone as repulsively negligent to workers as Kotick depart is by letting him have a golden parachute to another company. Also, I just don’t trust Microsoft to handle ABK that well. So far their strategy has been to just scoop up studios and expect them to make smash hits without really helping them innovate. It’s that kind of attitude that left Rare a mere shadow of its former self.

Sony is investing $2.1B in gaming R&D

Yes!

focusing on live service.

No!

YouTube version for those who can’t view it (thx, Elon)

Also, Shantae’s getting the same treatment.