Escalation in the Middle East, historical elections in Poland and continuous struggle of Ukrainian journalists
There is no exaggeration in calling Polish parliamentary elections historical: after eight years of national-conservative rule, the opposition (composed of liberal and social-democratic parties and an agrarian-Catholic alliance) gets the majority of votes and most likely would form a government by the end of this year. Cross-Border Talks’ Małgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat explains the background of this development, pointing out that an extreme polarization of Polish society will not disappear together with the power transfer. While young liberal voters from big cities celebrate victory, the workers have massively voted for Law and Justice, and many of them are now afraid that austerity policies will come back soon.
In another post-electoral comment, Wojciech Albert Łobodziński looks for reasons, for which Law and Justice lost the elections, despite having amassed support that their liberal opponents and predecessors never enjoyed while in power. He points out that the government’s campaign was loud, but primitive, and that the national-conservative right turned out to be unable to communicate with the young generation of Poles. He also looks at the victorious opposition camp to determine who can really feel good after these elections and whose results are disappointing.
We continue our study of the past, present and future of Turów coal mine and the communities living around it. In Chapter Five, we recall how the mine changed the local landscape and caused historical villages to disappear, which was done without any regret - such was the position of industry in pre-1989 Poland. We also write how local people, while not opposed to coal as such, nevertheless fought to be protected from the worst environmental effects of mining.
The study on Turów was published thanks to support from the Journalism Fund.
German village of Turchau, later Polish Turoszów, is no more: its former territory is now the coal opencast mine.
“Apart from Palestinians and Israelis themselves, no one can decide their fate. This is an undeniable fact. However, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement cannot be limited only to condemning the occupying government and apartheid of Israel. If we fail to distinguish between “war” and a people’s liberation movement, we have probably lost some of our discernment" - writes Siavash Shahabi, Iranian political refugee and journalist based in Athens, on the newest escalation of violence in the Middle East.
Journalism is here to expose corruption and bring it to the daylight - claims Yanina Korniienko, investigative journalist of the Ukrainian portal Slidstvo (Investigation). Slidstvo studied carefully the offshore wealth of Ukrainian presidents, documented Russian war crimes and has greatly contributed to building genuine democracy in Ukraine. Yanina is interviewed by Vladimir Mitev.