Olivier Bault | Visegrád Post

PiS to adopt EU recovery plan without coalition partner’s support but with help of The Left

Olivier Bault April 30, 2021

Poland – On Tuesday, commentators close to both the government and the opposition seemed to agree: the PiS-led United Right coalition will survive until the next parliamentary elections in 2023. An agreement had been reached between the coalition partners on a new…

Society

Fearful of Russian expansionism, Poland invests in its defense

Olivier Bault April 28, 2021

Poland – “Poland deploys troops close to Belarusian border in response to crackdown on Polish minority,” the Berlin-based media outlet BNE Intellinews reported on April 13. The connection made between the launch this year of the second stage of the formation of…

Culture

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, a struggle for human dignity celebrated on April 19

Olivier Bault April 22, 2021

Poland – Last Monday Poland commemorated the 78th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with the participation of the Polish and Israeli foreign ministers and more than 50 Polish and Israeli ambassadors from around the world. At noon, sirens…

Politics

Ratification of Next Generation EU recovery plan divides Poland

Olivier Bault April 13, 2021

Poland – Will Poland block the Next Generation EU recovery plan? Will this stalemate bring down the United Right coalition led by Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice (PiS) party? It is not only in Germany that the machine is stuck, after the…

Society

Almost a full year of remote schooling for Polish children!

Olivier Bault April 8, 2021

Poland – While the management of the first wave of the pandemic in the spring 2020 by the Polish government, as well as the other governments of the Visegrád Group, may have looked rather good in comparison with the major Western European…

Society

Why the Lukashenko regime is targeting the Polish minority

Olivier Bault April 1, 2021

The arrests of members of the Polish minority that took place on March 25 are not unprecedented in Belarus. On the other hand, the charges brought – “incitement to hatred” and “rehabilitation of Nazism”, which can carry 12 years’ imprisonment – reflect…

Politics

Can this new scandal really weaken PiS in Poland?

Olivier Bault March 29, 2021

Poland - Since February 26, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has been making numerous revelations about the CEO of the Polish oil company PKN Orlen. Orlen, a former state company, remains 27% state-owned, and the government of Mateusz Morawiecki therefore had a decisive…

Interviews

Marek Jurek: ‘Yes to Family, No to Gender’ – A citizens’ bill for Poland to pull out of the Istanbul Convention

Olivier Bault March 24, 2021

Interview with Marek Jurek, former Marshal (President) of the Polish Sejm in 2005–07, former Member of the European Parliament in 2014–19, founding member of the Right of the Republic party (Prawica Rzeczypospolitej), leader of the Christian Social Congress (Chrześcijański Kongres Społeczny). Together…

Society

Are media freedom and pluralism really under threat in Poland?

Olivier Bault March 19, 2021

Poland - On Wednesday, March 10, the European Parliament held a plenary debate on “Government attempts to silence free media in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia”. That discussion had been announced a week earlier on the European Parliament’s website, in a newsletter titled…

Politics

The EU as a freedom zone for LGBTIQ people but not for others?

Olivier Bault March 15, 2021

European Union - Poland in particular, but also Hungary and Slovenia, were at the center of criticism on Wednesday and Thursday in the European Parliament. The three conservative-governed Central European countries were the subject of a debate on media freedom. The first…

Politics

French Secretary of State for European Affairs conducts LGBT diplomacy in Poland

Olivier Bault March 12, 2021

Poland – Clément Beaune, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, made a visit to Poland on Monday and Tuesday. Since Emmanuel Macron was elected president, France has been somewhat cool towards Poland’s leaders, whom Macron has described as being “below…

Politics

ECJ encourages Polish judges to rebel against parliamentary democracy and to recognize only its own authority

Olivier Bault March 5, 2021

For the second time in a short while, a decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has led to a referral to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, which will be asked to define the limits of national sovereignty. Poland - The Polish…