Notes from Poland – Details, episodes & analysis

This week, in a reversal of roles, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill is in the podcast hot seat, speaking about the life and politics of Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński in an interview with Tom Leeman, a researcher based in London.

This conversation was recorded jointly with Leeman’s podcast, The Hated and the Dead, which features discussions of the most influential contemporary political figures from across the world. Recent episodes cover Angela Merkel, Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping, and Mikhail Gorbachev, among many others. In this episode, we explore the success and significance of the Kaczyńskis and their politics.

Also check out our recent interview with Poland's deputy foreign minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk on the Polish government’s war reparations claims of approximately $1.3 trillion against Germany.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski

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This week, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill talks about the Polish government's war reparations claims of approximately $1.3 trillion against Germany with Arkadiusz Mularczyk, an MP from ruling party PiS and chair of the Parliamentary Group for the Estimation of the Amount of Compensation due to Poland from Germany for Damage Caused during the Second World War.

They discuss the substance and politics of the compensation claims, Germany’s response, controversy over Jewish victims, and what next steps Poland might take.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski 

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In the sixth part of our Brief History of Poland series, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill looks at the eighteenth-century decline and fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, covering the period between 1697 and 1795. He examines the Saxon kings, the descent into political disorder, the Enlightenment and reform, Hasidic Judaism, the Constitution of the Third of May, and the three partitions that wiped the Commonwealth from the map of Europe.

The Brief History of Poland series covers over a thousand years of Polish political and cultural history, from 966 until today.

 Check out the previous episode in our Brief History of Poland series.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski

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In the fifth part of our Brief History of Poland series, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill looks at the war-torn seventeenth century and the beginnings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s decline, covering the period between 1582 and 1699. He examines the Polish occupation of the Moscow Kremlin, the Counter-Reformation and the Baroque, Sarmatian culture, Ukraine and the Khmelnytsky Uprising, conflict with the Ottoman Turks, and the Battle of Vienna.

The Brief History of Poland series will cover over a thousand years of Polish political and cultural history, from 966 until today.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski

 Check out the previous episode in our Brief History of Poland series.

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This week, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill talks with Poland’s former finance minister, and key author of post-1989 free market reforms, Leszek Balcerowicz, about Poland's economy and politics under the current government in the shadow of coronavirus.

They discuss PiS's social spending programs and economic policy, its handling of the epidemic, rule of law, and the opposition’s best strategies for electoral success.

Also check out our previous interview on rule of law with Poland's deputy foreign minister.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski

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In the fourth part of our Brief History of Poland series, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill looks at the "golden age" of Poland-Lithuania in the sixteenth century, covering the period between 1505 and 1572. He examines the reign of the last two Jagiellonian kings; the establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; religious tolerance and conflict; the great cultural achievements of the Polish Renaissance; and the beginning of the free royal elections.

The Brief History of Poland series will cover over a thousand years of Polish political and cultural history, from 966 until today.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski

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This week, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill talks with Poland's deputy foreign minister Paweł Jabłoński about controversies over rule of law in Poland and the ongoing conflict over the EU budget.

They discuss the multiple changes Poland's PiS-led ruling coalition has made to the judiciary, including the constitutional court and the judiciary council, as well as the proposal to tie rule of law conditionality to the EU budget and Poland's ensuing veto of the budget.

NOTE: In the discussion, reference is made to a PiS motion to the Constitutional Tribunal of 23 October 2015. Click here to download the document (in Polish). 

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski

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This week, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill talks with women's rights activist and academic Agnieszka Graff about the mass protests against the recent abortion ruling in Poland.

They discuss the motivations of the protests, their striking use of vulgar language, the reaction against the church, the political background to the court ruling, and what might happen next. Graff talks about her own experience of the protests, including the organisation of a street blockade.

Agnieszka Graff is an activist and a professor at the American Studies Centre of the University of Warsaw.

Also check out our previous episode on the recent crisis in Poland’s ruling coalition and the reshuffle of the government.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski 

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This week, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill is back with Ben Stanley, a political scientist at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, to talk about the recent crisis in Poland's ruling coalition and the reshuffle of the government.

They discuss the conflict between Law and Justice (PiS) and the United Poland (Solidarna Polska) party of justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro; the background to the government reshuffle; Jarosław Kaczyński's new position; the appointment of an MP known for anti-LGBT comments as education minister; and political scenarios for the future.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski 

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This week, Notes from Poland editor-at-large Stanley Bill talks to Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, director of Belsat television, a Polish service broadcasting into Belarus in Belarusian and Russian languages.

They discuss the background to the current mass protests in Belarus, Poland’s broader interest in its eastern neighbours, the muted international response, and the threat of Russian intervention.

Producer: Sebastian Leśniewski 

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