Today’s news round up in Poland
Start your day with a summary of today’s top stories from Poland’s leading news sites.
Wyborcza.pl – The Leopard tanks which Poland will send to Ukraine are an effective defensive weapon as well being good on the offensive, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote after visiting Poland's 1st Armoured Brigade. The main advantage the Leopard has over the Russian T-72, which it could meet on the battlefields of Ukraine, is its firepower. The effective range of T-72’s anti-tank ammunition is between 800-1,000 metres while it is 1,500-2,000 for the Leopard. But, the paper added, it takes time to train on the tanks, and in reality the Leopards should have been sent to Ukraine six months ago.
TVPInfo.pl – There is "great interest" in Washington in Poland’s case for getting Germany to pay war reparations, state-owned broadcaster TVPInfo wrote, quoting deputy foreign minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk. The minister said that he had been told that many people would "familiarise" themselves with the situation. He also denied that Poland’s campaign to get Germany to pay will undermine Western solidarity at a time when it is needed.
TVN24.pl – The private news network TVN24 examined how the Education Ministry allegedly distributed funds to organisations close to Law and Justice, the governing party. It said multi-million zloty subsidies were given for the purchase of 12 properties, including houses in Warsaw’s Mokotow and Ursynow districts. The report quotes Janusz Majcherek, a sociologist and philosophy professor, as saying "it is obvious we have a mafia state in Poland."
Rp.pl – The ruling Law and Justice party is courting rural voters by introducing a number of changes that it hopes will please farmers, reported the newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Among the proposed measures are restrictions on the purchase of rural land by non-farmers and greater compensation to farmers for damage caused by wild animals. Farmers would also get "fair compensation" if their land is subject to a compulsory purchase order. "There is no doubt that the ruling camp wants to win farmers over before the election," wrote the paper.
