“Stadiums not for hooligans” frontpages GAZETA WYBORCZA under a photo of a masked group burning flares during Tuesday’s national cup brawl in Bydgoszcz.
The paper quotes PM Tusk acting tough, saying “we won’t budge a step. This war is to be won”. But as it reports how the various institutions involved claimed that responsibility wasn’t theirs, the paper wonders “will the government and the Polish Football Association really decide to ban hooligans from their team’s matches?”
RZECZPOSPOLITA follows with a consideration of the new public order law that is being prepared in Poland for the European Football Cup in 2012. Among others, new regulations provide stricter punishment for false bomb alarms, electronic bracelets for supporters with stadium bans, and summary court at stadiums by videoconference. The last idea is being strongly criticised by penal law specialists, saying that “stadiums are for sports events, courts are for justice, prisons are for serving sentences and these things shouldn’t be mixed” as the paper quotes.
By way of a footnote, the same paper writes that Public Rights representative Irena Lipowicz has officially objected to some football clubs offering considerably lower ticket prices to matches for women, hoping to attract a bigger female audience. This is counter to the law on equal rights, points out the office, and restricts the rights of men and their access to culture…
No cheap strawberries this year – is the bad news in DZIENNIK GAZETA PRAWNA writing that the unexpected May frost has destroyed much of the plantations of the fruit, as well as apples, cherries and pears in the south and west of Poland. And it’s not over yet, adds the daily mournfully, predicting more cold weather towards the end of the week. Growers are busy with protective spraying and warm mats, but already estimates are that the return of winter will cut the first strawberry crop by 30-40% - which also means higher prices, forecasts the paper.
Lastly, Warsaw city daily ZYCIE WARSZAWY reports that the capital’s zoological garden has just received a singular gift from its former director, Maciej Rembiszewski: a grand piano. Why a piano? Because the zoo is organizing a small museum on its premises in the villa where in World War 2 the zoo’s erstwhile director Jan Żabiński sheltered Jews from the Holocaust. His wife would play Offenbach on the piano to warn if Nazis were in the vicinity. The museum is to open by this autumn, also catering for all the interest aroused by a recent book published in the USA, telling the story, writes ZYCIE WARSZAWY. (ek)