Storms cut off emergency lines

The regional DZIENNIK POLSKI regales that it only took a storm and a couple of lightning bolts to take down the 112 Emergency Call Centre in the southern city of Krakow. While recent storms raged across many parts of the country, the paper reveals that the emergency centre was off-line for almost an hour. Regional authorities have placed the blame on telephone lines managed by Telekomunikacja Polska, the former state operator. A new telcom operator is to be found for the emergency call-centre in the autumn by way of a public tender. Currently the centre receives all calls for fire emergencies, with hopes to transfer all medical emergencies to the call-centre soon. But only if the telephone infrastructure is completely reliable, DZIENNIK POLSKI warns.

RZECZPOSPOLITA writes that while the ruling Civic Platform will be celebrating ten years of its existence, the major opposition Law and Justice party is to put on a rally for its younger supporters. The anniversary, which falls on 11 June, will see politicians from the Civic Platform convene in the Baltic city of Gdansk for a National Council, which is set to announce the party’s electoral lists ahead of the general elections this autumn. Law and Justice, meanwhile, are diverting their attention to the Nationwide Youth Convention, with around 2,000 young Poles aged between 18-30 expected to attend.

In business, DZIENNIK GAZETA PRAWNA writes that up to 2.5 percent of mobile subscribers in Poland will migrate to other networks while keeping their old number. The figure translates to around 1 million mobile customers who are eager to change networks for better tariffs and plans. The numbers compare favourably with those seen before July 2009, when a new bill was passed in line with EU regulations to make it easier to migrate to other networks without too many formalities. Back then less than one percent of mobile subscribers took their number with them to another network.

The tabloid SUPER EXPRESS reports that Prime Minister Donald Tusk has drawn unwelcome comparisons, both at home and abroad, with Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi after making what appeared to be a pass at a Polish Radio journalist. With temperatures hitting 30 degrees in Warsaw on Monday, a female reporter from Polish Radio asked the prime minister at a press conference whether everything was “buttoned up” for Poland's forthcoming EU Council presidency, starting on 1 July. The prime minister then made the unfortunate pun that he has since come to regret. “I’m looking at the lady’s dress and buttoning up is not what comes to mind,” he said. “I like summer.” Tusk later tried to brush off the remark as “harmless” and “off-the-cuff” but international media have picked up on the quote, SUPER EXPRESS writes. The UK edition of the METRO daily writes that “It seems that among Europe’s elite the ability to make unbelievably clumsy remarks is not the sole preserve of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. Things reached a pretty pass for Polish prime minister Donald Tusk this week after he made a less-than-statesmanlike pass at a radio reporter.” (jb)