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 – According to the daily, Polish railways will lower ticket prices next week. In January, the railways increased their prices by almost 18 percent due to rising prices of energy. An average Polish family (2+2) will have to pay at least PLN 100 (EUR 21) more for travel by train from Warsaw to Krakow. Poland's prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, told a press conference on Thursday that the government will reimburse the energy costs to allow ticket prices to return to their previous levels.
TVPInfo.pl – The state-owned TV news channel carried a story on Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, a former prime minister, who was sentenced to six months of community service for failing to pay alimony to his ex-wife. Marcinkiewicz, as a member of Law and Justice (PiS) party, was a prime minister from October 2005 to July 2006. In his statement, he called the ruling "(Justice Minister – PAP) Zbigniew Ziobro's campaign against me, taking political revenge on me," and added that for over 10 years he has been supporting an adult to whom he was married for three years. But the prosecutors had no doubts. "The evidence gathered in the case, including the bailiff's documentation, undoubtedly showed that for almost a year he evaded the obligation imposed on him," they wrote in a statement.
rp.pl – The daily Rzeczpospolita wrote that depression (a major depressive disorder) costs Poland's economy up to PLN 2 billion (EUR 427 million) annually. According to a study by UCE Research and the ePsycholodzy.pl website carried out in January, 72.8 percent of Poles show mental deterioration, an increase of 10 percentage points compared to 2022. In 2021, mental deterioration was the reason for almost 11 percent of all employee absences. "The economic slowdown and rising prices as well as high interest rates have negatively influenced the mental health of Poles," said Michal Murgrabia from the ePsycholodzy.pl website.
RMF24.pl – The biggest private radio broadcaster carried a story that Tatra National Park (TPN) has decided to close its major mountain trails due to a high risk of avalanche, as heavy snow began to fall on Thursday evening. TPN also decided not to sell tickets that allow entry to mountain trails and closed all parking lots at entrances to the trails. The same decision was taken by Slovak authorities. Currently, schools in some regions of Poland are on winter break and the Tatra mountains are a popular place to spend winter holidays.
