Radio Gdansk News in English: Europe needs 'renaissance,’ says Polish PM after talks on new alliance

Europe needs a „renaissance” and a return to traditional values, Poland’s prime minister said on Thursday after talks with his Hungarian counterpart and a top Italian politician on creating a new alliance of conservative groupings in the EU. The meeting in Budapest brought together Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Matteo Salvini, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Italy. The aim of the gathering was to establish an alliance that would be an alternative to the European People’s Party, the largest centre-right political group in the European Parliament. The three politicians also discussed the coronavirus pandemic and called for faster vaccinations. The trio are to meet again in Warsaw in May.

The Polish government’s flagship child benefit programme has been running for 5 years this week.

The „Family 500+” programme launched in 2016, benefits more than 6.6 million children nationwide, has helped enhance the dignity of of families and reduce poverty and contributed to an increase in the fertility rate according to Poland’s Family and Social Policy Minister. The aim of the program is to ease the burdens of child rearing by giving families with children a handout of PLN 500 a month per child. Payouts to parents have exceeded PLN 141 billion, according to officials.

Poland reported a new record daily rise in coronavirus infections on yesterday, confirming 35,251 new cases, the most since the pandemic hit the country more than a year ago.

The death toll increased by 621, the second-highest number of daily fatalities this year, according to public health authorities. A total of 2,356,970 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Poland since the start of the pandemic, and 53,665 have died in connection with the COVID-19 respiratory disease so far, officials said on Thursday. Poland’s first case of coronavirus infection was reported on March 4, 2020.

And finally, Ryanair is set to launch 3 new routes from Gdańsk in time for the summer tourist season.

The operator will be opening routes from Gdańsk to Copenhagen in Denmark, Haugesund in Norway and Zadar in Croatia. The carrier is also set to increase the number of flights from Gdańsk to Hamburg. Gdańsk airport is the 3rd largest airport in Poland in terms of passenger traffic numbers and had grown passenger numbers to 5.4 million passengers per year in 2019. Since the coronavirus epidemic happened, the number of flights and passengers has dropped by nearly 70%.

Weather

Today’s will be a sunny day with scattered clouds in a moderate breeze and temperatures reaching 9 degrees centigrade (48 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, dropping to 1 degree overnight. Saturday will remain sunny, but temperatures will still be quite low only reaching 6 degrees during the day and -2 degrees overnight.
That was the Radio Gdańsk English news and weather.

Martin Caren/mrud