Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has pursued control by varied and ruthless means — breaching EU law and his citizens’ rights. EU states have to do more than finger wag, writes Guy Verhofstadt

Slawomir Sierakowski looks at Antoni Macierewicz’s changes to Poland’s military and suggests he wants an army he can use against the people.

Poland is likely to lash out at the EU over a perceived recent humiliation. This could offer the EU a chance at emancipation, writes Slawomir Sierakowski.

LATEST: Donald Tusk has "overwhelming support" to retain one of the European Union's top jobs, despite staunch opposition from the government of his native Poland, the EU leader overseeing the election process said.

By establishing control over social transfers and immigration after just 12 months in charge, the Warsaw government has secured its position in power, writes Slawomir Sierakowskiy

It’s still possible to hope that the Trump presidency might not be as bad as the president-elect has promised, that some of his wilder notions might be filed under ‘electioneering’.

AS the world tried to remake itself after World War II idealists — even some hard-bitten leaders in victorious regimes — argued that a world government was the only way a sustained peace might be secured. 

Pope Francis wrapped up his Polish visit yesterday with a huge outdoor Mass where he told young people to look beyond the instant gratification afforded by technology, and instead to try to change the world.

In recent years, there hasn’t been much to like about the EU, with its low growth, high unemployment, political squabbles, xenophobia, stifling bureaucracy, and constant threats of a breakup.

Even before the Paris attacks, the mood in Central Europe was decidedly anti-migrant, with fences going up on borders, a Syrian beaten on a Polish street last week and the rhetoric sharp across the region.

The right-wing and anti-migrant Law and Justice party has won a majority of seats in Poland’s parliament and can govern alone, the state election authority announced yesterday.

The European Union lashed out at member countries for failing to come up with funds to help cope with the refugee emergency.

Thousands of Poles blew horns, prayed and waved flags in central Warsaw today to show their anger over a new law that raises the retirement age and a host of other issues.

CENTRE-RIGHT leader Donald Tusk last night became the first Polish prime minister since the fall of communism in 1989 to win a second consecutive term following his Civic Platform’s election victory.

POLISH prime minister Donald Tusk and his centre-right Civic Platform (PO) looked like creating history by being the first government to run full term and be re-elected.

POLAND’S president has set October 9 as the date for parliamentary elections, opening a campaign certain to be shaped by bitter disputes over the plane crash last year that killed President Lech Kaczynski.

POLAND yesterday relived the deep pain that engulfed the nation a year ago with a day of prayers and other ceremonies marking the anniversary of the plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski and many other prominent civilian and military leaders.

A RUSSIAN investigation into the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski blamed the Poles, saying the crew was forced to land in bad weather by an air force commander who had been drinking.

A Russian investigation into the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski blamed the Poles, saying the crew was forced to land in bad weather by an air force commander who had been drinking.

SECOND World War Katyn massacres were committed on the direct order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Russia’s lower house of parliament said yesterday — a statement hailed by Polish officials.

The Second World War Katyn massacres were committed on the direct order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Russia’s lower house of parliament said today – a statement hailed by Polish officials.

THE election of Bronislaw Komorowski’s as president offered Poland’s pro-business ruling party an opportunity but also a challenge, as it prepared to govern without a hostile head of state.

THE election of Bronislaw Komorowski’s as president offered Poland’s pro-business ruling party an opportunity but also a challenge, as it prepared to govern without the obstacle of a hostile head of state.

Poland’s Bronislaw Komorowski was officially declared the country’s new president today comfortably defeating rival Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI has conceded defeat in the Polish presidential elections.

Poles were today voting in a presidential run-off election which pits the identical twin brother of the last head of state, who was killed in a plane crash, against the acting president.

POLAND’S presidential race between business-friendly Bronislaw Komorowski and conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski is too close to call ahead of the final round of voting tomorrow, surveys showed yesterday.

POLAND’S centrist presidential candidate Bronislaw Komorowski faces a tight run-off vote against his right-wing rival Jaroslaw Kaczynski on July 4 after beating him by only a few percentage points in a Sunday vote.

A sombre election season in Poland was prolonged by two weeks when a first round of voting produced no immediate successor to Lech Kaczynski, the president killed more than two months ago in a plane crash.

EXIT polls in Poland’s presidential election last night show that the interim president and parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski is leading Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the brother of the president killed in a plane crash in April, but without the 50% needed for outright victory.

More than two months after Poland’s president was killed in a plane crash, Poles are voting today to choose his successor – and polls show that his surviving twin brother faces an uphill battle in defeating the favourite despite a recent surge in sympathy for him.

JAROSLAW Kaczynski, a leading candidate in Poland’s presidential election, interrupted the last day of campaigning yesterday to visit the grave of his identical twin – the leader whose death in a plane crash forced the early vote.

JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI, the twin brother of Poland’s late president Lech Kaczynski, said yesterday he would be the candidate of his right-wing opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) in a presidential election.

Polish opposition party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is to stand in the presidential election called after his twin brother was killed in a plane crash.

Some 100,000 Poles filled Warsaw’s biggest public square today, joining together for a memorial and funeral Mass for the 96 people killed in a plane crash a week ago.

Thousands of mourners threw flowers on a slow-moving hearse and joined an enormous viewing line at Warsaw’s Presidential Palace to pay their respects to Lech Kaczynski and his wife as their bodies lay in state.

The body of Poland's first lady was flown home from Russia to an emotional welcome today.

Poles wept before their televisions, lowered flags to half-mast and taped black ribbons in their windows after hearing that President Lech Kaczynski and the upper echelons of the establishment lay dead in woods a short drive from the site of the Katyn forest massacre, where 22,000 Polish officers were killed by Soviet secret police in one of Poland’s greatest national traumas.

A gay Irish-American has officially complained to Poland after its president used images of him and his partner in a national speech to warn against homosexual marriage.

Poland has agreed in principle to allow the US to install a missile defence system on its soil.

Had Irish emigrants been entitled to vote, and if even a small fraction of them had exercised that right, undoubtedly they could have been the deciding factor in general elections here given the size of the country and the closeness of election results.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso this afternoon predicted "fruitful cooperation" with the new Polish Government - a dig at the difficulties Brussels has endured under Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party which was heavily in the election.

Poland’s business-friendly and pro-EU Civic Platform ousted prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s conservatives in parliamentary elections, early results said today, in the strongest showing for any single party since the eastern European country overthrew Communism in 1989.

More than 20,000 Poles living in Ireland are voting in their country's parliamentary elections today.