Jarosław Kaczyński, the most powerful politician in Poland, read a book about cats during a session of parliament on Friday.
Kaczyński, head of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, was engrossed in “Atlas of Cats: Wild and Domestic” while lawmakers were discussing controversial plans to overhaul the justice system, the Associated Press reported. European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said earlier this month the plans pose a “serious threat” to the independence of the country’s rule of law.
PiS spokeswoman Beata Mazurek later tweeted a picture of Kaczyński reading his book with the caption: “May the pre-holiday reading of chairman Jarosław Kaczyński encourage us to support animal shelters and the people who help animals.”
However, according to AP, opposition lawmaker Michal Szczerba said it was a PR stunt designed to soften cat-loving Kaczynski’s image even as “democracy is collapsing” in Poland.
“Let us not be fooled,” Szczerba, of the Civic Platform party, wrote on Twitter.
The cat book was published by Ringier Axel Springer, a Swiss-German publisher with a strong presence in Poland’s media market (Axel Springer is also co-owner of POLITICO Europe). PiS is pushing a law that would clamp down on foreign media ownership in Poland. The bill if passed would force all foreign owned news agencies (approximately 80% of Poland's media) to be sold, most likely into the hands of the now PiS dominated state or into the hands of the church.
politico.eu
Poland’s ruling party approved a law that will gradually impose a ban on Sunday shopping, meeting the demand of its conservative Catholic supporters with a measure that risks undermining economic growth and hitting corporate profits and real-estate investors.
The Law & Justice party, which has vowed to pull the European Union’s largest eastern member out of the bloc’s mainstream and return it to its traditional roots, passed a law on Friday to force retail businesses to close for two Sundays a month next year and for all but a few exceptions in 2020. Backed by labor unions and the Catholic church, the bill must now be approved by the upper house of parliament and signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.
While other EU members force shops to close on Sundays and holidays, Poland’s economy is based largely on domestic consumption, and many companies depend on weekend shopping for a large part of their sales. An example is the country’s largest clothing retailer, LLP SA, where 18 percent of revenue comes from Sunday shoppers. Household consumption was the main driver of economic growth in the third quarter.
“Any restriction of economic activity, such as retail trade, results in weaker economic growth," Michal Dybula, a Warsaw-based economic strategist at Bank BGZ BNP Paribas, said by phone. “It may impact the earnings of affected companies, but consumers might also react by stockpiling goods."
Poland’s economy grew 4.7 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the biggest increase since 2011.
