The newly-elected Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, was in Warsaw yesterday for talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. According to official reports, their conversation included discussions surrounding EU affairs, security, energy issues, and the migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border.
During a visit to Rome last Thursday, Morawiecki said he would urge Scholz “not to succumb to pressure from Russia” and oppose the contested Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as Moscow could use it as “an instrument of blackmail against the EU.”
Nord Stream 2, which would carry Russian gas to Germany and bypass Ukraine, has not been certified due to regulatory hurdles, while Poland and the United States have demanded a halt to the pipeline should Russia invade Ukraine.
During his visit to Poland, Scholz said Germany felt responsible for ensuring that Ukraine’s gas transit business was successful, echoing his predecessor Angela Merkel. Officially, Germany’s new government, including Scholz, has not made a public commitment to block Nord Stream 2.
Source: PAP, Radio Poland
Poland’s Border Guard agency reported that a Polish soldier had been wounded on Sunday as a group of illegal migrants attempted to force their way into Poland from Belarus.
According to a tweet from the Polish Border Guard, a group of 55 migrants attempted to cross the Polish border near the village of Czeremcha on Sunday. One Polish Army soldier was reportedly “hit in the face with a stone” and received medical aid on the spot.
Since the start of the year, there have been almost 40,000 illegal crossing attempts from Belarus, including 8,900 in November alone, according to Border Guard statistics. In addition to new, stricter border protection rules, Poland is set to build a 5.5-meter-high, 180-kilometer-long border wall to deter illegal crossings.
Source: Radio Poland, PAP
The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) will be hosting 140 events across Poland today in commemoration of the introduction of martial law 40 years ago.
A memorial flame, the “Light of Freedom,” will be lit by President Andrzej Duda at 7:30 pm tonight at Marshal Józef Piłsudski Square in Warsaw in honor of the victims of the communist regime. At 8:00 pm, a live concert will be broadcast from the Polish Theater in Warsaw, featuring adaptations of well-known works from the 1980s about the Polish struggle for freedom, performed by well-known stars of the Polish stage.
“Stan wojenny,” or martial law in Poland, lasted from 13 December 1981 to 22 July 1983. Over 10,000 people were detained or imprisoned during this period, and roughly 40 people lost their lives.
In a press conference last week, IPN President, Karol Nawrocki, described the events of December 13, 1981, as a time in which “tens of thousands of Poles” faced “illegal internment, imprisonment, and death in the streets of Polish cities….”
For more information on today’s commemorative events, visit https://ipn.gov.pl/.
Source: Radio Gdańsk, ipn.gov.pl
A unique program in Gdańsk is giving students from the Medical University of Gdańsk the chance to spend Christmas with a Polish family if they are unable to travel home.
Some 6,000 students study at the Medical University of Gdańsk, 1,000 of whom come from outside Poland, including students from India, Iran, and the African continent. The “Przygarnij EDka w święta” or „Host an EDka for Christmas” campaign was established to help foreign students unable to return home during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
As Marzena Kołtoniak of GUMed’s Foreign Students Support Center explains, such students “are very often alone” for the holidays “in empty apartments or dormitories.” For Kołtoniak, it’s important to help people, “especially those who are far from home and who need our support.”
Families or students wishing to participate in the program should contact the Foreign Students Support Center at the Medical University of Gdańsk by telephone at 58 349 17 87 or by email at welcome@gumed.edu.pl.
Source: Radio Gdańsk
Weather
Today will be mostly cloudy and cold, with a slight chance of rain and a gentle breeze coming in from the south. Temperatures will peak just above freezing today with a high of 1°C, or 34°F, dropping overnight to a low of -1°C or 31°F. Cold, wet weather is expected to continue throughout the week, with a chance for some sunshine starting on Friday.
RGen/EPeck
