Christopher Lash

To all proof readers. Please do not be overly thorough and intrusive when looking through proofs. My current article the proof reader has gone a bit ballistic.

Finding Poland's boasting of the fact they recognized Palestine a bit of a self own as it happened before the fall of communism when Eastern European countries all supported the Arab side anyway

Russia's over there (thus the obligatory black clouds 😉). At a little village called Piaski (Nowa Karczma) at the Polish Baltic Sea coast very close to the border

Possible highlight of my stay at the Polish coast; an 8 year girl with a t-shirt with the words 'I love saying dumb sh*t' on it. Would be interested to find out the conversation that preceded the purchase

Some kind of weird in-joke perhaps?

Netanyahu has spent the better part of two decades trying to strong arm the United States into an unprovoked war against Iran and finally found a president stupid enough to do it for him. Unbelievable.

Trump's decision to attack Iran two days after saying he might do so in two weeks and now talking about regime change makes me feel that we're in some completely twisted, insanely sped up version of 2003

a group of men in tuxedos are sitting at a desk with their hands on their faces . ALT: a group of men in tuxedos are sitting at a desk with their hands on their faces .

People who've done academic research on the Iraq war watching what's going on

Definitely something to read!

I have often been asked about the reasons for the Czech Republic’s uncritical support of Israeli actions.

I am happy that I can now refer to the forum published by the Czech Journal of International Relations that features a range of experts on different aspects of the Czech policy on Israel 🧵 1/7

Btw all these people saying Sikorski would have beaten Nawrocki. I'm sorry but wtf? Sikorski has the biggest negative electorate of anyone apart from Tusk in PO. Like the left liberals would have turned out to vote for him. Laughable

Got it.

He has hardly anything to do with Trump, he's met him once. This is all about domestic politics

Starmer has less excuse though, he has a great majority. Tusk and Poland has a patchwork coalition with a pretty conservative member (the PSL). But still he and it still should have done much better

Oh and PLEASE don't write Trump had anything to do with this, or even that it fits larger international narratives. Almost everything in this election is about domestic trends. Just look at the stats/demographics and compare them to previous Polish elections and get back to me /ends

b) potentially at least attempts some of its legislative agenda which it hasn't even touched to show the electorate it's lost that it's worthy of voting for. All of this while Nawrocki makes it very uncomfortable for them and the far right plot their route to power in 2027

Indeed Nawrocki's win means the next two years are going to be pretty intense as the parliamentary majority a) tries to come up with a new narrative going into 2027 - preferably a positive one as the enthusiasm of autumn 2023 has well and truly gone

My only comment for foreign observers commenting on the Polish Presidential election: the President doesn't matter all that much. It does make the 2027 parliamentary elections super important though

Yes, the absolute failure of generalist journalists to understand local circumstances, it was ever thus.

Impressive. And not very common in Czechia right? Has there been a turn recently in this regard?

Whoa, this is a strong poll for Trzaskowski. Didn't expect it. The one thing I can expect is a strong mobilisation of the left-liberal voting base for the next round. But still I don't expect this easy a win for Trzaskowski

💯%

Just think about what people who have Mentzen-type views say about PiS - often they say things like 'PiSkomuna'. They very much have that in common with PO supporters.

I'm not saying I want the state to get out of the way of course, I believe in state intervention. I just think that's the most important defining factor for the people who vote for him (but I could be wrong of course)

I think it is, but not quite as direct a link as some people suggest. I see it more as - we need radical economic change (get out of my way, I should be the boss of me!) rather than the other stuff. It comes with the package sure but if the state gets out of the way, Trzaskowski can get the votes

You see there are options in Poland but in the second round there isn't, which could go two ways a) turnout drops massively, b) turnout goes up because they absolutely hate the other option

To me this represents a lack of options for the young and severe disappointment with the status quo.