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Kursnummer: 16825

Poland’s Presidential Elections: transition, migration, war, security

Politik und Medien Jetzt Buchen

European Contexts Seminar Series

With Wojciech Szacki, head of political desk, Polityka Insight; Bartosz T. Wieliński, deputy editor -in chief, Gazeta Wyborcza, and Marek Świerczyński, head of security desk, Polityka Insight.

When: Friday 9 May 2025, 9:30-11:30 CEST
Where: In-person, Presseclub Concordia, Bankgasse 8, 1010 Vienna AND online via ZOOM

There are two ways to follow this seminar:

  1. Presseclub Concordia attendance - Registration!
  2. Zoom participation - Registration!

Cooperation partners

ERSTE Foundation, Presseclub Concordia and fjum

Erste Stiftung Logo
Presseclub Concordia Logo

Background

European politicians cheered when Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform won the 2023 parliamentary elections in Poland. Expectations were high: the new government would revert ultraconservative trends, reinstate the rule of law, free the media, liberalise abortion, among other issues. Two years later, Donald Tusk suspended the right to asylum on the border to Belarus and plans to leave Ottawa Agreement, Abortion has not been legalised.

On 18 May 2025, Poland holds presidential elections. Campaign promises indicate that candidates are trying to outdo one another to win conservative voters. As BalkanInsight writes: “Gavin Rae, a sociologist at Warsaw’s Kozminski University, says the candidates are mainly competing “on the right, on war and immigration, on who is the most militaristic and ready to spend more on the military.” The difficulty for PiS, Rae tells BIRN, is that “Tusk has moved so far to the right on these issues, that there is not much room left to compete with him.””

Wojciech Szacki, Bartosz T. Wieliński, and Marek Świerczyński will explore political issues at stake, different aspects of the transition process from PiS to Civic Platform and militarisation.

Speakers

Politics, transition expectations, media

Wojciech Szacki, head of political desk, Polityka Insight. From 2002-2012, he was a journalist at Gazeta Wyborcza, focusing on party politics and opinion polls. Szack co-hosts “Nasłuch” podcast, and writes for Polityka weekly. He graduated in law at the University of Warsaw in 2002.

Bartosz T. Wieliński, journalist and political scientist, deputy editor- in -chief of Gazeta Wyborcza. He joined the paper in 1998. His articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, El País, and La Repubblica.

Security and Militarization

Marek Świerczyński, head of security desk, Polityka Insight. Świerczyński focuses on on Polish defence policy, NATO, conflicts and crises, technical modernisation, and Polish-US military cooperation.

Moderators

Mirjana Tomic fjum/Presseclub Concordia, and Simon Weiss, senior researcher, security expert, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Vienna

Format

Moderated conversations followed by Q&A

Target Groups

Austrian and international journalists, thinktank analysts, and academics.

Number of participants in Presseclub Concordia
Maximum: 70

Number on online participants
Maximum: 100

210809 Bartosz Wielinski 11

Bartosz T. Wieliński

Journalist, deputy editor in chief of Gazeta Wyborcza

Bartosz T. Wieliński (1978) is Polish journalist and book author.

He studied political science and journalism at the University of Silesia in Katowice and at the International School of Political Science in Katowice. He holds a postgraduate diploma in diplomacy and international relations from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

He began his journalistic career while still a student. In 1998 he began working as a city reporter for the Katowice branch of Gazeta Wyborcza. Between 2005 and 2009 he was Wyborcza's correspondent in Berlin. In 2017 he became Wyborcza's foreign editor and in 2019 deputy editor-in-chief.

He publishes regularly in the foreign press. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Le Figaro, Le Monde, EL Pais, Die Welt, Die Zeit, Süddesutche Zeitung, Le Soir, Der Standard and Dagens Nyheter.

In 2014 he won the prestigious Grand Press Award for best reportage. He was awarded for a story about orphans in post-war Austria who were abused by their guardians. This text also received the Pen of Hope Award from Amensty International.

In 2014 he published the "Bad Germans", a book about the history of 20th century Germany. In 2021, he published "Hitler's Doctors' War", a book about the behind-the-scenes world of medicine in the Third Reich.

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Marek

Marek Świerczyński

Head of Security and International Affairs Desk, Polityka Insight

Marek Świerczyński has headed the security desk at Polityka Insight since 2015. During this period, he has written more than 1500 analyses focusing on Polish defence policy, NATO, conflicts and crises, technical modernisation, and Polish-US military cooperation. He has been covering defence tenders and international security issues for most of his career in journalism. In 1997-2005, he worked at the Polish Section of the BBC World Service in Warsaw and London, and later in several radio and television newsrooms. In 2010-2015, he was the publisher of the “Polska i Świat” programme at TVN24. He has worked with the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, DC, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Atlantic Community in Berlin, the Polish Institute of International Affairs and Poland's National Defence Academy. He studied law at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

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Szacki Wojciech serwis

Wojciech Szacki

Head of political desk, Polityka Insight

Wojciech Szacki heads the political desk at Polityka Insight. From 2002-2012, he was a journalist at Gazeta Wyborcza, where he covered party politics and opinion polls. Szack Co-hosts “Nasłuch” podcast, and writes for Polityka weekly. He graduated in law at the University of Warsaw in 2002.

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