Today’s news round up in Poland

Start your day with a summary of today’s top stories from Poland’s leading news sites.

TVPInfo.pl – Adam Niedzielski, the health minister, has branded the behaviour of an opposition MP who attended parliament despite having Covid as irresponsible, according to a report on the website of the public broadcaster TVPInfo. Early on Tuesday, Dariusz Rosati had written on Twitter that he would stay away despite a vote of no-confidence in Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister, due to take place. But he later turned up for the vote, and in doing so, said the health minister, put the health of "all MPs and the entire government at risk."

Wyborcza.pl – The sale by petrochemical firm Orlen of shares in Lotus, a smaller state-owned rival it has recently merged with, to the Saudi Arabian firm Saudi Aramco may have broken laws prohibiting transactions that threaten Polish security, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote on Tuesday. The problem, the paper reported, is that Aramco cooperates with Russian firms. The links to Russia were not assessed by the Polish security services and Aramco may not have provided the Polish authorities with the necessary information on its Russian connections.

TVN24.pl – Poland is "shrouded in smog" the private news network TVN24 reported on Wednesday morning, with norms in some towns being exceeded by over 300 per cent. Some of the worst offenders were Jastrzebie-Zdroj, where the smog was 347 per cent above the daily norm, and Jelenia Gora, where it was 275 per cent above. The poor air quality is linked to temperatures that fell as low as -20 in some parts of the country.

Rp.pl – The Rzeczpospolita newspaper wrote that 60 per cent of Polish households said that their financial situation was deteriorating owing to the worsening economic climate. Only 15 percent of Poles say they have enough savings to last them six months in an emergency while 42 percent have enough for three months. The situation is expected to get worse as inflation eats away at salaries, the paper added.