The campaign for the second European Parliament elections to be held in Poland had one distinguishing feature: European issues were almost totally absent. Both the ruling Civic Platform (PO) and the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party focused instead on hurling accusations at each other, with the lion's share of these concerning domestic affairs. As a result, the elections were turned into a domestic popularity contest for the parties.

Will the Patriot missiles which the United States are to transfer to Poland under an August 2008 agreement on military cooperation be able to effectively counter a missile attack on the country? The question may sound strange, but it is not. It turns out the missiles which would be deployed to Poland may be intended for training purposes only and may not have operational capability, which means they may be unarmed-like blanks in handguns.

For many months the government has insisted that Poland has been coping with the global economic crisis better than most of its neighbors and European Union partners. Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak and Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski both say that, although a slowdown is unavoidable, Poland is still one of the best performing countries in Europe. The economies of other much more affluent countries are expected to contract by as much as 5-6 percent this year. In Poland, under the worst-case scenario, the growth rate is expected to be at zero percent.

President Lech Kaczyński has recently spoken about the crisis. His address to the parliament on this topic was much less optimistic and was followed by a heated discussion.