Poland 2010

Komorowski wins Polish presidential election
Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Poland’s ruling pro-business Civic Platform (PO), won Sunday’s presidential election run-off, exit polls showed, in an outcome that will be applauded by investors.
Financial markets will welcome the result because Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk are close allies from the same party, and the new president is expected to work smoothly with the market-oriented government.
The European Union’s largest ex-communist member state is the only economy in the 27-strong bloc to have avoided recession last year, but Poland needs to tame a large budget deficit and growing public debt without derailing a fragile recovery. Komorowski ahead, again Despite a very strong electoral mandate, the Polish president has few executive prerogatives. His most potent tool is the veto, which can only be overturned with a three-fifths majority in the lower house of parliament. (Economist blog)
1 June
Pilots in Polish air disaster ignored warnings, transcripts reveal
(The Guardian) Onboard systems told pilots of plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski to regain altitude, but cautions went unheeded
Russia, which is conducting its own investigation into the crash, handed over copies of the cockpit recordings to Jerzy Miller, the Polish interior minister, yesterday. The original black box recordings will stay in Russia until the investigation is completed.
A Polish prosecutor who took part in a Russian investigation into the crash has said he believes poor training, lack of money for test flights and incorrect flight procedures in the Polish air force all contributed to the disaster.
19 May
(BBC) Non-crew members were in the cockpit of a plane that crashed killing the Polish president and more than 90 others, an investigation has found. The question of whether the crew were pressured to land remains unanswered, an official said. More
26 April
Polish Politicians Warn Election Campaign Could Turn ‘Nasty’
With almost two months to go before presidential elections in Poland, politicians have warned the election campaign could become aggressive, Polish Radio said on Tuesday.
Civic Platform’s Stefan Niesiolowski said the campaign would be confrontational, and not the civil exchange of views that some were hoping for.
26 April
Kaczynski twin to run for Poland’s presidency
(FT) Jaroslaw Kaczynski – twin brother of Poland’s late president Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in an air crash this month – says he will campaign to be the country’s president in early elections set for June 20
Mr Kaczynski has received much sympathy after the crash but opinion polls suggest that the frontrunner to win the election is Bronislaw Komorowski, nominee of the ruling Civic Platform party as well as speaker of parliament and acting president.
15 April
Wiktor Osiatynski: Polish Heroes, Polish Victims
Soon after the National Assembly gathered to honor the dead last week, the Archbishop of Krakow announced that on Sunday, following their funeral tomorrow, Mr. Kaczynski and his wife would be buried at Wawel Cathedral — the Polish equivalent of Westminster Abbey or the Panthéon in Paris. Mr. Kaczynski is to be the first president to be buried there, among the greatest of Polish kings, two revered romantic poets and the three great military heroes Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Jozef Pilsudski and Wladyslaw Sikorski.
But Mr. Kaczynski was not one of these extraordinary men. Just before his death, his approval rating was under 30 percent, while his disapproval rating was twice that. His odds of re-election later this year were meager. He was widely considered the worst Polish president since 1989. Yet in death, he is a national hero.
Out of tragedy, normality
(The Economist) Poland’s prospects look bright, despite the aeroplane crash that killed its president on April 10th. But Poles still have a lot to do to make the most of their chances
President Lech Kaczynski of Poland, his wife, and dozens of the country’s military and political elite were killed when an aeroplane transporting them to a ceremony to commemorate a second world war massacre crashed in bad weather in western Russia. An early sense of national unity was dissipated when a row erupted over a decision to bury Mr Kaczynski at a site reserved for kings and heroes. Poland’s presidential election, originally due to be held in the autumn, is now expected to take place in June.
Paying Russia’s respects
The dignified response to Poland’s loss has a wider significance
(Daily Mail) Black box reveals pilots of Polish president’s jet knew they were doomed and there was ‘dramatic’ flight deck speech; (NYT) Black Boxes Yield Data on Crash of Polish Jet
13 April
Roger Cohen writes movingly of the hope that emerges from this tragedy: The Glory of Poland – History’s gyre can be of an unbearable cruelty – the death of Poland’s elite in the same cursed place, Katyn. But even the cruelest history can be overcome.
12 April
Polish Crash in Russia Creates Contrarian Bond
far from aggravating frictions in Russian-Polish relations, as initially feared, the plane crash that killed Poland’s president and a swath of the upper echelon of politicians and military leaders on Saturday appears to have achieved the opposite effect, encouraging kindness and understanding on both sides.
Grief-stricken Poland mourns president
(FT) Poland came to a standstill as the body of Lech Kaczynski, the president was returned home to Warsaw the day after a plane crash in Russia in which he and dozens of the country’s political and military elite died
Polish Crash Inquiry Looks at Decision to Land Pundits and people around the world are wondering why the pilot landed the plane in bad weather and why so much of Poland’s leadership was traveling together on a single aircraft.
11 April
The Legacy Of Lech and Maria Kaczynski: Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice
Poland is in deep sorrow, yet coping firmly and democratically with this calamity. Lech Kaczynski helped make that happen – a towering moral and political achievement, for Poland and for Europe.
10 April
World Leaders, Especially Merkel, Express Sadness
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev was one of the first to offer condolences and immediately called for an investigation into the cause of the crash, which occurred in dense fog close to Smolensk and not far from the woods of Katyn where Mr. Kaczynski was due to commemorate the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish officers and top civil servants by Joseph Stalin’s secret police.
Poland: President Kaczyński is Killed in Plane Crash in Russia – Initial Reactions