Cuts in government spending, a facelift of the opposition and remembering Cardinal Wyszynski – the Primate of the Millennium.

Press reviewed by Slawek Szefs

On Poland’s domestic scene, POLSKA has a frontpage headline ‘No reforms this year’ . In its report, the daily writes that the key reforms announced by Donald Tusk’s cabinet have been shelved in the wake of forecasts of slowing economic growth and rising inflation. According to POLSKA, Mr Tusk’s plan to cut spending by about ten percent may prove insufficient. One of the postponed reforms is that to send all six-year-olds to primary school this year. It was one of the major schemes proposed by the education minister and according to POLSKA she is likely to be dismissed. DZIENNIK writes in an editorial that the prime minister should deliver an address to the nation, outlining in detail what the future holds. Spending cuts is something that has both social and political consequences.

All the papers devote much space to the weekend congress of the main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice. ‘Peace, not war’ is the headline in RZECZPOSPOLITA, a reference to the conciliatory approach to politics announced by Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. GAZETA WYBORCZA refers to Kaczyński as ‘a wolf-turned-lamb. and in its editorial welcomes the fact that in his address at the congress he did not say a word about his criticism of the European Union and Poland’s prospects to join the euro zone.  According to DZIENNIK, the new opening of Law and Justice is only the beginning of the road. It says that the social consequences of the economic slowdown have cast a shadow over Polish politics. It will be interesting to see how the government is going to respond to the opposition’s new face.

In another editorial, GAZETA WYBORCZA writes that the opposition  isn’t winning any points as a result of the economic crisis, even though it is really the perfect time to undermine the Prime Minister’s ruling party. The stronger its criticism of Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform for spending cuts a few weeks after adopting the budget, for slow investment rate and poor results in using EU funds, the more vulnerable the opposition is to accusations that it is actually hampering the government in tackling the crisis.

RZECZPOSPOLITA has an in-depth story on Cardinal Wyszyński, who was at the helm of the Polish Catholic Church for over three decades, until his death in 1981. Historians agree that without the Primate of the Millennium, as he is often called, the process of dismantling communism would have been much slower or would have taken an entirely different course. It is true that it was the Pope’s visit in 1979 that was the catalyst for change but it was thanks to the Cardinal’s efforts during the previous decades that the Polish nation preserved its identity under communism. Cardinal Wyszynski is mentioned in all surveys as one of the greatest Poles of the 20th century, but few people are aware these days of his role in upholding the independence tradition among Poles.