The Polish President has recently made headlines all over the world after a best-selling author called him out on being... not particularly well versed on matters concerning the American electoral process. While the writer, Jakub Żulczyk, is now facing charges for insulting the head of state, we talk about why the President might actually be doing him a big favor. We also discuss the disturbing rise in religiously motivated death threats targeting Polish women’s rights activists. After Jarosław Kaczyński urged his followers “to defend the Catholic Church at all cost” back in October, the most radical among them seem to have taken his words to heart.

In today’s episode, we discuss the story of Daniel Obajtek- the CEO of Poland’s state-owned oil company Orlen and Jarosław Kaczyński’s golden boy whose staggering career goes hand in hand with a series of sweeping scandals. We also look at the acquittal of three human rights activists from Płock accused of insulting God by... distributing posters with the image of Virgin Mary wearing a rainbow-colored halo.

In this very first episode of Democracy Unpolished, we discuss the recent media protest against a proposed advertising tax bill and its possible repercussions, as well as the charges laid against Marta Lempart, one of the leaders of the Women’s Strike movement.