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 – Farmers are angry with Henryk Kowalczyk, the agriculture minister, over the problem of Ukrainian grain, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote on Tuesday. An association called the Cheated Farmers has said he has lost the trust of the farming community over his apparent failure to get millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain out of the country. The grain was supposed to be taken to Gdansk and then shipped on to the developing world but instead it has stayed in Poland and is now depressing local prices. A tonne of wheat last September cost PLN 1,500 (EUR 320) by now goes for PLN 770 (EUR 164).

TVPInfo.pl – State-owned broadcaster TVP Info accused Donald Tusk, the leader of Civic Platform, Poland’s largest opposition party, of "getting confused" over who was to blame for the controversy surrounding allegations that Pope John Paul II hushed up incidents of child sexual abuse by priests under his authority. Tusk, said TVP Info, was claiming that the governing party, Law and Justice, was trying to exploit the allegations for political gain. The broadcaster also accused Tusk of trying to take the moral high ground over the issue when he was a "pro-abortionist".

Rp.pl – The government allowed three million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to flood into Poland without any control, the newspaper Rzeczpospolita wrote. The grain was then bought by Polish animal feed producers because it was half the price of locally produced grain. This sent grain prices nose diving. The Polish People’s Party, a party with strong links to farming, said an investigation should be carried out, while in the meantime importers of Ukrainian grain should be forced to pay a deposit, which they will get back once the produce leaves Poland.

TVN24.pl – Jadwiga Emilewicz, an MP from Law and Justice, the dominant party in the ruling coalition, told the news broadcaster TVN24 that there is "growing optimism" in the governing alliance. She added that the coalition, the United Right, was gearing up for this year’s general election, and accused the opposition of having "really nothing to offer" the country. She added, however, that the election was still 200 days away and that this is "an ice age in politics".