The president’s veto to the law on early retirement receives front-page treatment in the major dailies.

Press review by Elżbieta Krajewska

DZIENNIK writes both of the veto as well as of the government’s declaration that this doesn’t mean early retirement won’t be available with the coming year. However, GAZETA WYBORCZA reports that the veto means nobody will have the right to early retirement with the new year. “This is completely irresponsible on the part of the President and absolutely politically motivated” lashes out the daily’s commentator. Even the tabloid FAKT writes of the veto, adding that 800 thousand people who intended to retire next year will now have to wait until Parliament adopts a new law.

The daily RZECZPOSPOLITA worries over the approaching economic crisis, reporting from a major Polish glass factory which is laying off thousands of workers. “Krosno has a population of 47 thousand and out of this close to 3,000 have now lost their jobs or will lose them in the nearest future. The town will be having its saddest Christmas in years”. Part of the problem is being caused by cheap glass from China flooding the market. And merely a year ago Krosno was an example of efficiency, with unemployment lower than 5%, writes the daily.

 A shocker in SUPEREXPRESS tabloid which runs an exclusive interview with a former football activist, whose evidence on corruption and the so-called “soccer mafia” led to some spectacular arrests in Poland. “I made packets with money for the umpires” he tells the daily. As a rule, an umpire in a fixed match was paid around 30 thousand zloty but could receive as much as 100 thousand, he says and adds that the money was brought in by the owner of a meat processing plant. “We used to laugh it still smelt of kiełbasa” quotes SUPEREXPRESS.

And lastly, for a Christmas warning, the Warsaw city daily ŻYCIE WARSZAWY writes of the special Christmas wafer, which Poles share before sitting down to the family dinner on Christmas Eve. The paper reminds that the wafers sold at shopping centres, from baskets held by young girls dressed as angels, are not consecrated. But the wafers are still doing a roaring trade. Polish priests remind that Christmas wafers are consecrated in church on the first Sunday of the Advent. They argue that this is the little bit of holiness that people should have on their tables at Christmas, but in the end, everyone has to decide for themselves, concludes the paper…