In most of the Polish dailies on Monday: a look back at yesterday’s May 3rd Constitution Day and the events throughout the country. RZECZPOSPOLITA publishes pictures from the grand historical parade in Warsaw, featuring King Stanisław August Poniatowski reading from the Constitution of 1791, that was the first such constitution in Europe – and the world’s second after the USA. Warsaw city daily ŻYCIE WARSZAWY reports from the festivities at the royal park of Łazienki, where the original document was also to be seen in a rare presentation by the Warsaw Archives.
As May 1st was also Poland’s fifth anniversary of membership in the European Union, today’s RZECZPOSPOLITA publishes the results of a probe on Poland’s most important achievement of the past 20 years which, according to more than half of respondents is: EU-entry, and a free market.
On the same occasion, FAKT tabloid publishes an exclusive special address from Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, formerly NATO Secretary General, who writes that Poland played a key role in what Europe has achieved over these five years – and that the EU values Polish optimism!
DZIENNIK comments on the criticism that was fielded at Lech Wałęsa after the Solidarity icon made an address at the convention of Declan Ganley’s Libertas party in Rome. “I haven’t betrayed the European Union!” argues Lech Wałęsa, quoted in the daily, which queries why Poland’s former president says he admires Ganley’s intelligence and has praise for a man whose ideas are against European unity.
GAZETA WYBORCZA reports on the habitat mapping of the Baltic Sea, which Poland was one of the first European states to complete. “Not many people realize that 11% of Polish territory is sea” writes the paper, adding that Polish and Norwegian researchers made a thorough investigation of the 30 thousand square kilometres of sea bottom which belongs to Poland. All of the Polish coast is covered by the Nature 2000 protection plan – with Poland the only country in Europe to have done this, notes GAZETA WYBORCZA. The research results can be accessed via the page www.pom-habitaty.eu
Also, GAZETA WYBORCZA has a chilling report on the workers of the future: uninvolved, disloyal and distrustful, writes the daily citing the results of US labour market research carried out in these uncertain times. Is this the way Poles are going, too? – worries the paper.
And lastly free-of-charge METRO which documents the record-breaking attempt in Wrocław, where a staggering 6346 guitarists met in the Old Market Square to play together Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” – this year accompanied by Deep Purple’s Steve Morse. “It was a sea of guitars” the paper quotes him saying…