State ball a waste of money, German courts against Polish parents, goodbye to Swiss frank loans and Barack Obama like princess Diana.
Reviewed by Slawek Szefs
Looking ahead to Independence Day celebrations GAZETA WYBORCZA reports on an initiative of a group of young people calling themselves the Underground Anarchists. It comes in response to President Kaczynski's idea of a grand ball for invited foreign state leaders and other political and business world VIPs, which is to be the crowning point of the 90th anniversary Independence Day festivities. 'Didn't get an invitation from the president? Don't worry. It's gonna be lousy anyway...' read posters in black and red inviting all to a 'folk counterball'. The organizers claim their event, to be held in one of the major Warsaw city squares, will be better because: a) everyone is invited, so you don't have to be a state leader; b) such official balls are costly affairs; and c) it's a waste of public funds as the money could be put to much better use, i.e. to help the ailing national health service, teachers or pensioners. A clash of viewpoints and interests, you say? Well, that's what freedom and democracy are all about. What better way to mark Independence Day!
RZECZPOSPOLITA frontpages the story of a nine-year-old boy of a divorced Polish-German couple. He and his Polish mother are in hiding now, after the desperate woman decided to abduct her son from a school in Dusseldorf. They are being sought by police throughout Europe with the woman facing charges of kidnapping. Why did she do it? “Because I felt discriminated by German authorites after a court order prevented me from seeing my son for the past two years,” the Pole confessed to a reporter who contacted her. The woman claims that the decision of the German court and the Office for Youth Affairs (Jugendamt) had been influenced by the fact she was a foreigner. This is not the first case reported by both Polish men and women divorced from their German spouses who complain that local and federal authorities are biased when confronted with the possibility of children from mixed marriages being brought up in a non-German environment. The European Parliament has been addressed with some two hundred complaints concerning the treatment of such cases by other countries as well. It seems freedom of movement does not always guarantee finding a better life.
DZIENNIK devotes headline attention to the decision of the Finance Supervisory Commission which ordered banks in Poland to withdraw from granting loans in Swiss franks. This pertains especially to those banks which experienced problems with acquiring the currency, lately. Consequences of the problem may be serious, as 65% of credits in Polish banks this year have been taken in Swiss franks. Experts predict the move may totally eliminate Swiss currency credit offers in a matter of weeks.
Cooling down Polish euphoria after the US presidential elections, the tabloid FAKT observes that Barack Obama is like princess Diana. Its commentator argues that 'Obamomania' is a groundless state of excessive emotions. The US president elect is a product of political marketing, void of any individual traits, he writes. America has not only its first non-white president, but also one of the least experienced politicians to assume the office, is the concluding and thought-provoking statement.