Poland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — When a right-wing populist party won the right to govern Poland five years ago, Piotr Grabarczyk feared “bad things” might happen to gay men like him and other LGBT people. He sometimes considered leaving the country, but waited.

Friends and a job bound Grabarczyk to Warsaw, the relatively liberal capital city. He trusted that Poland’s membership in the European Union would protect his community. Yet his dwindling faith finally fell away as President Andrzej Duda campaigned for reelection on an anti-LGBT platform - and won.

WARSAW, June 3. /TASS/: Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has imposed a penalty of around $57 mln on Russia’s top gas producer Gazprom for failure to cooperate in the investigation conducted in relation to construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the regulator said in a statement on Monday.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland should reject a European treaty to combat violence against women as some elements of it go against the country’s constitutional values, a government official said on Saturday.

Poland ratified the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention preventing violence against women in 2015 under the former, centrist government.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish President Andrzej Duda declared victory Monday in a runoff election in which he narrowly won a second five-year term, acknowledging the campaign he ran was often too harsh as he appealed for unity and forgiveness.

The close race followed a bitter campaign between Duda and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski that was dominated by cultural issues. The government, state media and the influential Roman Catholic Church all mobilized in support of Duda and sought to stoke anti-Semitism, homophobia and xenophobia in order to shore up conservative support.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A late exit poll in Poland’s presidential runoff Sunday showed the conservative, populist incumbent, Andrzej Duda, leading against the liberal, pro-Europe mayor of Warsaw, but with the race still too close to call.

It appeared to be the closest election in Poland’s history, reflecting the deep divisions in this European Union nation. Although the country is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic and problems in its health and education systems, the campaign was dominated by issues of culture and saw strains of homophobia and anti-Semitism.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Voting started Sunday in Poland’s razor-blade-close presidential election runoff between the conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda and liberal, pro-European Union Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

Duda is backed by the ruling right-wing party and the government, as he seeks a second 5-year term. Trzaskowski, a former European Parliament lawmaker, runs for the main opposition Civic Platform party. Both candidates are aged 48.

WARSAW, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Incumbent Polish President Andrzej Duda will meet his main rival Rafal Trzaskowski, candidate of the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), in the run-off of Poland's presidential elections, according to an Ipsos exit poll published on Sunday night, Polish Press Agency reported.

According to Ipsos, Duda received 41.8 percent of the vote, while Trzaskowski, who's also mayor of Warsaw, gained 30.4 percent, and Szymon Holownia, an independent running as a moderate conservative, gained 13.3 percent.

WARSAW/BERLIN (Reuters) - European Union leaders are expected on Friday to back extending the bloc’s main economic sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine until the end of January 2021, diplomatic sources and officials said.

The EU hit Russia’s energy, financial and arms sectors after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and went on to back rebels fighting Kyiv government troops in the east of the ex-Soviet republic.

It has rolled them over ever since as Moscow has vowed to never give back the Black Sea peninsula.

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish barrister and two judges have filed complaints against Poland alleging a lack of independence in the country’s Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Monday.

Poland, the largest post-communist state in the European Union, has been in a long-running dispute with the bloc over judicial reforms which critics say limit the independence of the courts.

Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party says its judicial reforms are needed to rid the system of the residue of communism.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Some members of Poland’s government on Friday denied a Reuters report saying talks over a U.S.-Polish defense deal known as Fort Trump were crumbling amid disputes over how to fund the deployment of additional U.S troops and where to garrison them.

“This is fake news,” Krzysztof Szczerski, a top aide to the Polish president, told public radio on Friday.

The U.S. ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher, reacting on Twitter to the report, said negotiations remained on track.