The fresh crop of MEPs includes Holocaust deniers, fascists, xenophobes and a leftwing war hero Poland's newly elected MEP is anti-EU, anti-democracy, pro-Putin and, by his own account, anti-women. The 72-year-old led his party New Right to fourth place in the elections, with 7.2% of the vote. He also gained 28.5% of votes among 18- to 25-year-olds more than any other party. Continue reading... ...
Hospital spokesman confirms death of former general, who had been in ill health for some time General Wojciech Jaruzelski obituary Poland's last communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, has died at a military hospital where he was being treated after a stroke, a hospital spokesman said. The 90-year-old died on Sunday just days before Poland marked 25 years since the parliamentary election in...
Former Polish Communist party prime minister who imposed martial law to crush the Solidarity democracy movement in 1981 Patriot, puppet or pragmatist? Reformer or orthodox communist? The jury remains out on the record of General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who has died aged 90 . Living quietly in retirement from the end of 1990, Jaruzelski tried hard for the rest of his life to convince the world he had never...
The Polish group, who released their album The Satanist earlier this year, are to be deported midway through their tour Dom Lawson interviews Behemoth's frontman Nergal The Polish metal band Behemoth have been fined and ordered to leave Russia after being detained ahead of a concert in the city of Yekaterinburg. Frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski has told local media that he and seven members...
The extreme metal star who was detained in Russia explains his philosophy, and how battling leukaemia changed him News: Behemoth ordered to leave Russia Earlier this week, news broke that Polish extreme metal band Behemoth had been detained by police while on tour in Russia, and on 22 May a court ordered they be fined and deported. The official reason is that band did not have the visas, but it's...
At 104 years old, Stanislaw Kowalski may not be a direct rival to Usain Bolt but he's still a record holder when it comes to the 100 metres. The centenarian sprinter has become the quickest European aged more than 100 to complete 100m after a race in his native Poland at the weekend. He puts his long life down to not overeating Continue reading... ...
Youth unemployment and the need for more democracy are among the hot topics at three-day European Youth Event It is not everyone's idea of a weekend Euro-break: a conference in the sprawling maze of parliamentary buildings in Strasbourg to debate the virtues of European democracy. Yet they came in their thousands more than 8,000 young people from 28 member states to celebrate the European Union and...
Breakdown of voting patterns show Donatan and Cleo won popular vote in several countries British viewers made Poland's controversial act Donatan and Cleo the clear winners in voting for the Eurovision song contest but the duo was relegated in the rankings after the verdict of the official panel was factored in. A breakdown of the voting competition organisers revealed that Poland's song, We Are Slavic,...
Euro-MPs from across the continent and political spectrum describe their weekly routine At the beginning I found it unbelievably difficult to get things moving in the European parliament, and to get people's attention. No one listens to you automatically. Continue reading... ...
Jerome Mullan to hold talks with Police Service of Northern Ireland over rise in assaults and hate crimes Poland's diplomatic representative to Northern Ireland has expressed concern over a spike in xenophobic attacks on Polish families in Belfast. The Polish consul is to hold talks with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on Tuesday over the rise in assaults and hate crimes directed at the...
Poet and dramatist haunted by the second world war and the suffering of Poland The terrible experiences of his native Poland and of his generation were vividly expressed in the poetry and plays of Tadeusz Róewicz, who has died aged 93. The second world war haunted Róewicz until his death, but so did the moral obligation to write about it because, as he wrote in I Did Espy a Marvellous...
On International Workers' Day we should reflect on abuses such as forced labour, discrimination and privacy rights abuses People around the world will mark workers' struggles for improved working conditions today on International Workers' Day. Many of those living and working in Europe enjoy the achievements of this movement. Yet, others in the region continue to face exploitation, discrimination,...
The benefits of joining 10 years ago have not been all economic: Poland is becoming more outward-looking, tolerant and confident Of the 10 mostly post-communist countries that joined the European Union exactly a decade ago today, none has benefited more from membership than Poland. First and foremost, there's the cash: the country received £56bn in development funds between 2007 and 2013, money...
A fan attending a Polish football game on Saturday is set on fire after being sprayed with pepper spray by riot police. During a match between Zaglebie Lubin and Slsk Wroclaw,, the fan climbs a fence and starts waving a flare. He is briefly engulfed in flames when police spray him, but is unharmed Continue reading... ...
Pilgrims from across the Catholic church's political spectrum crowd into St Peter's Square for the 'day of the four popes' In the grey light of the early morning, as hordes of pilgrims made their slow progress towards St Peter's Square, Giuseppe Cannella stood to take a photograph of his daughter. His family had been waiting since 4am to take their places at the canonisation of popes John XXIII and...
When Poland joined the EU in 2004, a new wave of immigrants arrived. Now in cities like Southampton they are a major factor in the European elections Ten years after Tomasz Dyl left his small home town near Krakow as a 13-year-old to start a new life in Southampton, his personal trajectory has become emblematic of the story of Polish migration to the UK. While his parents earned a living picking fruit...
Grandson journeys to Poland to see where his grandfather was kept prisoner by the Germans in the second world war Jack Walker left his keys in Poland. Almost 70 years later his grandson Peter Walker went back and, to his great surprise, managed to find them. As a prisoner of war in the second world war Jack was, in his grandsons words, a bit of an artful dodger. After being captured by the Germans...
The late Polish author's work bears witness to the worst of the 20th century without surrendering its human sympathy Tadeusz Róewicz, who has died at the age of 92, was one of the great European "witness" poets whose own lives were directly affected by the seismic events of the 20th century. "My decimated generation is now departed and dying, duped and disillusioned," he...
Artur Debski has lodged with Facebook friends and picked up casual work in stunt to provoke debate about Polish emigration On a noisy pavement next to the Earls Court exhibition centre in London, two Polish-Australian documentary-makers are filming a Russian TV crew filming the Guardian's photographer as she urges Artur Debski to loosen his crossed arms and smile a bit. A couple of pedestrians glance...
US settlement follows international investigation which found corruption involving IT contracts in Poland, Russia and Mexico Computing multinational Hewlett-Packard (HP) is to pay US regulators $108m to settle a corruption scandal involving employees at subsidiaries in three countries, who were charged with bribing government officials to win and retain lucrative public contracts. The case piles further...