applause welcome to the ballroom of the royal castle in warsaw. this former royal palace is where the first constitution of poland was signed. and in poland today, constitutional issues — who runs the country and how — are top of the bill. the new prime minister has sacked the heads of state—owned media, dismissed the protests of the courts, and clashed over and over again with the president, an ally of the last government. the prime minister says he is re—establishing democracy and de—politicising the state. the president says the new government is violating the constitution and promoting anarchy. this country is right next to ukraine, and was the first to offer aid. how strong is that commitment two years on? with me to answer questions put to them directly by our audience is our panel.

mateusz morawiecki mp, was, until only a few weeks ago, the prime minister of poland. he is vice president of pis, the law and justice party. it's the largest party, but its coalition failed to get enough seats for him to hold on to power after the election last year. agnieszka pomaska mp is a senior member of civic platform, the new prime minister's party, and the vice chair of the european affairs committee of the sejm, the lower house of the polish parliament. senator magdalena biejat is co—leader of razem, a left—wing party, which hasn't joined the governing coalition, but will support it on key votes. she's a deputy marshal, or speaker, of the senate. krzysztof bosak mp is a deputy marshal, or speaker, of the sejm, and is co—leader of the right—wing confederation party. applause let's go straight to ourfirst question, and it comes from john.

i was at tvp when police officers, dozens of them, went in. how do you justify such drastic measures and how is that democratic? a little bit of background. late december last year, police went into the state broadcaster, tvp, after the government dismissed the head of the station, along with the heads of polish radio and the polish press agency. civic platform — the main party in the governing coalition — had long complained that the previous government had turned tvp into a propaganda channel. agnieszka pomaska, from civic platform, how do you justify such drastic measures? how is it democratic? first of all, thank you for the invitation and thank you for your question. to answer it, we have to look back and describe the situation that we had during the last eight years in the polish public media, financed from the state budget. it was not public media, in a sense, we got used to it,

like bbc, for example. the media during the last eight years were used to spread propaganda, to accuse the opposition, and to fight with the opposition. the situation must be cleaned up. that's why there is a new board of the tv, public tv, and the same, radio. and all those who were using media, using public money to spread propaganda, to abuse the power, they simply shouldn't work anymore on the public tv or public radio. of course, everything must be done under the polish law. and with the constitution. the question presses you, particularly... applause the question presses you, particularly, about sending police officers into the public broadcaster to enforce your will.

there were people who were illegally inside, including politicians, who were blocking the building of the media, and they were against changes that were legally done by the new government. so, it's normal that police had to react. former prime minister mateusz morawiecki, what did you make of it? thank you. thank you very much for inviting me. imagine that a minister of his majesty's government illegally dismissing the board of bbc. then imagine that the same minister is actually replacing all the fired people with his own people. and then, the news channel is actually closed down for the first time since the martial law in 1981. and this is what has been happening in poland for last couple of weeks. actually, people were not

illegal there, because all the politicians, all the members of parliament have their right, according to polish law, to intervene, to go to different public buildings and to make any kind of supervision, intervention, and so on. so, all what has happened happened completely illegally, because there is a law in this country which says about what you can do about public television, what you cannot do about public television. and, by the way, i can guarantee you, while i was prime minister, all poles could see three different tv channels and three different sets of opinions. laughter/uproar 0k. ok, let's stay... let's stay on this

particular issue, though. because now you can have one, tvn, and another, tv public, which is almost the same. is this democracy? i doubt it. i think that democracy requires freedom of speech. jeering 0k. please... thank you very much indeed. krzysztof bosak, from the right—wing confederation party, what do you make of the police raid that was made on the tv station? we are quite critical- towards the propaganda that we had in public media during law and justice government. - in fact, we were not invited because we were . political competitors to law and justice party. but we are also critical towards this decision i of new government to take media by force, not by law. _ it should be proposing - new bill about public media, then voting in parliament,

then sending to president to sign it _ if president do not sign, i negotiating with president, or waiting for presidential elections next year. - and then changing the board. not first changing the board by force. _ then starting discussing about a new bill. - thank you very much. magdalena biejat, from left—wing razem party, i mean, the question refers to drastic measures — dozens of police officers — a breach in democracy, perhaps? yes, it does. and i wanted to say that mr morawiecki compared the public media during the rule of law and justice to bbc, and i would say that it's very unkind to our host to do such an impression. applause because the scale of the propaganda was extremely bad, and i'm not referring even

to the political opponents of the ruling party, but more to the normal people who were protesting the government. i myself was very involved in many protests — of lgbtq community, of women's rights activists — and we've had a terrible, terrible, dehumanising narrative towards those people in the public media. something that should never be possible in the democratic country that's part of the european union. having said that, i am absolutely against letting any police raid any institutions. i think that... itjust doesn't look well, and it doesn't help when we talk about changing the atmosphere. i don't agree with mr bosak when he says that we should have waited, because it was not easy to wait

while one of the most important, the public television, the one that's being funded by all of us here in poland, was so much... ..concentrated on promoting very harmful propaganda. and that was something that should have been stopped. but i think that there were better ways to do it. and i think that the problem now is that — and here i will agree with mr bosak, which happens rarely — that we need a new bill, and there is no trace of it yet. thanks, magdalena. thank you very much. let's get to our next question. comes from a couple, alexander and kuba. hi, my name is alexander, and i'm here with my boyfriend, kuba. _ and we would like to ask the following question. i as a gay couple, we want - to know how polish politicians will act to tear down - the rainbow curtain dividing our country from the rest of the western world? i thank you. thank you very much indeed. a little context for those people who don't know it.

in contrast with some european countries, and other countries around the world, there is no same—sex marriage here. there is no law against hate crime. there is no civil partnership, and there is no gay adoption. magdalena biejat — from razem, the left—wing party — what do you think about the rainbow curtain, in particular, i suppose, gay marriage? well, i am a strong supporter of lgbtq rights, and i believe that we are ready in poland — much more than the politicians themselves, i must say — to introduce same—sex marriage, including adoption, of course, for the same—sex couples. the sad thing is that it seems that we won't be able to go through with the same—sex marriage bill during this term because of the constitution of the polish sejm. it's still very conservative. the good news is that there has been information that the ruling coalition will

go ahead with the civic unions. and that's great, great news, because that's a huge step forward. and that they will also address the hate crime. and i'm very happy with that, because this is something really important because, you know, we have to be able to protect all our citizens, regardless their, you know, their belief, and who they love, and where they live. and i do hope that this will go through. thank you. mateusz. .. applause mateusz morawiecki — the former prime minister — the rainbow curtain and gay marriage. it's very important to say that in poland we do not have any major problem with crime towards this community... you don't have a problem with hate crime? comparing to the other countries,

the statistics which i saw. and then, all the rights which the same—sex couple needs, according to our different laws, can be also executed. this is why we didn't see any reason that any new regulation needs to be adopted. but they say, why do they not have the right to marry? because in polish constitution, the marriage is reserved for women and men. but things do change, don't they? constitutions change, as well. in our constitution, the marriage is reserved only for men and women. and that is what you believe it is for? this is not true. forgive me.

you say the constitution...? no, it's not true. i mean, you have to read the constitution. 0k. it's not true. cheering i don't... we will... we will come to you, if we may, after we've let the panel have their say. thank you very much for your contributions. let's move on. agnieszka pomaska — from the governing civic platform party — is gay marriage a step too far for your party? we don't have... personally, i'm in favour of what mrs biejat said, i but i'm afraid - we are far from that. according to the majority, we don't have for that - in the present parliament. the problem is bigger. - we just talked about public tv. hate speech was spread against lgbtq - using public money, in the public media. j that's something that should be stopped - and will never happen again. and that's why we need changes. cheering

and, of course, _ if we speak about the law, it's something we can do. i think we have majority - in the parliament to include hate speech against lgbt - into the law to make it easier to fight with that. 0k. thank you very much indeed. krzysztof bosak from the right—wing confederation party. we are a conservative party. some of us are even, we can say, traditionalists, so we do not support such legislation. in fact, we don't support all this lgbt agenda. we believe that it's a part of a left—wing programme, a part of so—called progressivism, or wokeism, and we reject all that stuff. we believe that every citizen should be safe, should be secured by the state institutions. every citizen should have the same rights and freedom.

but under polish constitution, it's completely clear that the marriage is a union of man and women. of course, leftists try to revert or subvert this constitutional norm. this is what they always do. but in my opinion, it's false. we support safety for everybody. but, also, we don't want any hate speech law, because we know that it is restricting freedom of speech and it means leftist censorship. thank you very much indeed, krzysztof. thank you. look, i want to hear from the audience, if i could. i know there's a wide range of views here. i'm going to start with you, madam, overthere. thank you very much, madam. hello. i was ten years old when communism ended, so i sort of remember the transition period. i spent ten years in the uk. i came back to poland two years ago.

as a woman, as a girl, i felt more liberated in communism, in terms of empowerment of women and girls. i think there was a lot more forward looking, in that sense. and i think, yes, i've seen a lot of polarisation and a lot of hate speech. so, i think it's a little bit of poland that i don't recognise. 0k. thank you very much indeed. thank you. sir, overthere. thank you very much, sir. our morality doesn't change. the world might change, but morality need to stay the same. - one man, one woman for a lifetime - is the best thing - that god has given us, and it needs to be preserved. thank you very much, sir. any other thoughts from the audience, who were very noisy earlier? madam? i also have pretty conservative views, and i'm against gay or lesbian marriages. but, still, i believe some compromise is needed, just to protect people's rights. so, i believe same—sex civil unions would be a good compromise that would ensure

that people's rights — for instance, for the information about their partner's health — that those rights may be ensured. thank you. thank you very much, madam. thank you. and, sir? thank you. yes, thank you. we appreciate to hear here compromises being said. i just want to say that traditionalism is always an effort to maintain what was happening in the past. but we are living in a world that constantly evolves. and, you know, it's ok not to believe in us, but we're still here. thank you very much. i heard, i heard a lot of cheering and some booing during the questions. do we have one more thought? i'll go back to the questioner, perhaps the partner of the questioner, if you'd like to. have your last word, sir? thank you. just a comment on what i mr morawiecki was saying. the lgbtq hate crimes are i not being registered in poland as a separate type

of hate crime. - this is why the statistics doesn't show them. - it's not only hate crime. it's also the general mental - health and well being of lgbtq people, especially the youth. and the government led - by mr morawiecki in the last eight years fought very hard to make it very difficult - for young people to come out and to live in poland. - thank you very much indeed. thank you. thank you very much to our audience for your thoughts there. let's go on to our next question. it comes from malgorzata. thank you. hello. my name is malgorzata, and i'd like to move on to russia and ukraine. as we see the war developing, and the third year starting, what's the endgame? what are your thoughts on this major humanitarian crisis? former prime minister mateusz morawiecki? i'm cautiously pessimistic, malgorzata, because the fact of the matter is that russia has vast natural resources,

vast human resources, and they have they have patience, which democratic systems do not have to such an extent. what we need right now is a very solidarity— based type of approach from all the nato countries to support ukraine with yet another wave of weapons and ammunition, because this is what they need. and for the first time in our history, the last 300 years, somebody else is defending us from the archenemy. and we should be doing as much as we can, strategically and tactically, to support ukrainian troops in their fight towards the russian aggression. agnieszka pomaska from the civic platform party, the question is — what is an endgame? i believe that we have all we can do -

to help ukraine to win the war. it's not yet our war directly. but we are on the border. l it's difficult to imagine - what will be the consequences if ukraine will lose the war. but, of course, i'm very much worried about the situation i in the us and decisions they will make there. i thank you. krzysztof bosak from the confederation party. it's very hard to predict the future, especially in such a situation. but, in fact, i'm also rather pessimistic. because we can see that poland did everything, and even maybe more than our country was possible to do. and other western nations did less, in my opinion. the level of support from united states was too small and too slow. so, we have, in my opinion,

unfortunately, the possibility that it will become another frozen conflict. and if this war will be without any clear result, especially bad result for russia, it is possible that russia will start something new and will challenge nato countries very seriously. thank you very much indeed. magdalena biejat from the left—wing razem party? well, this is probably the first moment during the debate that you've heard all of us agree. it is so important that we restore our good relations with the eu countries, that we restore good relations with our neighbours, not only the ones from eastern europe, but also the ones from the baltic sea region, because this is where our geopolitical interests are very aligned. but, of course — as mr morawiecki said — we fight against

a very powerful enemy, which is russia, and we have to use all the resources we have to be able to confront it. thank you very much. i want to hear from the audience, if i could, on this immensely serious topic. "what is the endgame?" is one question. "how do we end the war?" i guess is another. i'd love to hear your statements. briefly, if we could. i've got a gentleman over at the edge there. that's right. sir? my name is scott. hi. hi, scott. i'm an american, and i've lived in warsaw for almost 20 years. it's difficult to not take a tiny bit of offence to the comment that the united states hasn't done enough to help poland. there's at least 10,000 american troops in this country, as we speak, ready to defend this country's border. 0ur countries have a long history of helping each other out and supporting each other, and i hope that continues. poland is one of the leaders in europe for a defence budget, and i'd love to see poland put aside some of its polarised and partisan politics to unite and become the leader in the eu

that it can and should be. thank you. thank you very much indeed, sir. and then we've got... applause gentleman there. sir? my name is kazimierz, i'm a polishjournalist. i've been personally to nato bases in poland and i've seen first—hand what the americans are doing. and i want to thank you, because i think that they are doing a lot and they are helping a lot, and they are doing what they can to make sure that we are safe. and i feel all of us in poland feel safe because of nato and because of what america and the uk is doing, and all the other countries. thank you very much. madam, overthere. what i think about when it - comes to poland is that we have welcomed millions of _ ukrainians, women and children. and i think it's important- to remember that, as you all agree on helping ukraine, - we should also agree on helping polish people continue - to help ukrainians, but also to have the internationall community remembering

and aiding us, as attention. is diverted to other conflicts. thank you. sir, gentleman in the red tie there. thank you very much. hello, my name is ugmar. i'm from portugal. regarding the end of the ukrainian war with russian, i believe this is the time we start listening and try to create some diplomatic corridors, also with the russian federation. it will be impossible we defend the end of the war, supporting only one side and listening only one side. is there sympathy for that view, that we need to open up diplomatic channels with russia, that there is some kind of deal to be done with russia? there are, there are. there's no trust. gentleman over here, who's had his hand up for a bit. thank you very much. we are polish people. we fighting with russians for over a thousand years. and we will fight for another thousand if it's necessary. thank you very much, sir. thank you very much indeed

for all your contributions. and that is all we have time for with world questions in poland. big thank you to this month's panel. thanks also to our audience here in poland and our audience around the world. i'mjonny dymond. goodbye. hello there. saturday was a very cloudy day, but it was also very mild, thanks to southwesterly winds bringing double—digit temperatures across the whole of the uk. now, we did see some rain move into western areas through the afternoon,

and that rain was associated with this cloud, this weather front moving across the uk. now, we do have a bump in the weatherfront, which means that the rain is going to get heavier over the next few hours as it pushes across the whole of wales and most of england as well. for northern england, northern ireland and scotland, there'll be some clear spells and a few showers over the next few hours. these are the kind of temperatures we'll have to start the day on sunday. so it is going to be a mild start to the day, but very wet, particularly across england, with rain extensively. the rain quickly moving away from wales through the morning but really dragging its heels, i think, across east anglia and southeast england, with the rain even hanging around into the early stages of the afternoon. further northwards, though, there'll be some sunshine and a few showers dotted around, but mostly a dry weather picture. eventually we should see some brighter spells getting into east anglia and the southeast, albeit very late in the day. top temperatures, 15 degrees — very, very mild for february. now, we start the new working week on monday with another weather

front moving eastwards. this one is going to be quite weak, just a few patches of rain crossing england. a ridge then moves in behind that. so sunny spells, just a few isolated showers coming into western scotland, but a lot of dry weather and a fair amount of sunshine to come through. on monday, top temperatures range from around 10—13 degrees celsius, which is still very mild for february. middle part of the week, it then turns wet and windy, with several weather fronts moving from west to east across the uk. now, on tuesday, this weather front starts off with some quite heavy rain for scotland and northern ireland. as the front moves its way southwards and eastwards, it weakens, so the rain won't amount to too much as it works in across england and wales. it'll be quite a windy kind of day. temperatures still mild thanks to those southwesterly winds. a windier day overall to come on wednesday, the rain much heavier as well. could see some localised surface water flooding issues. perhaps turning a bit brighter for northern ireland and western scotland late in the day. temperatures 12 or 13 degrees, so still very mild. however, it's going to get colder towards the end of the week as we start to see

the winds coming in more from a west—northwesterly direction, and that will bring a return of some hill snow.

live from washington, this is bbc news. president biden blames ukraine's defeat in the eastern town of avdiivka on a failure by us lawmakers, to pass a military aid package. alexei navalny�*s mother is prevented from recovering his body, associates say, following the russian opposition figure's death in prison. the latest ceasefire talks between israel and hamas are described as "not very promising" as israel's prime minister insists, he won't bow to international pressure.

just a day after jailed russian opposition leader alexei navalny�*s death, president vladimir putin is celebrating a victory on the battlefield in ukraine. he congratulated his troops for capturing the eastern town of avdiivka. russia's defense ministry says it has taken full control after ukraine withdrew its troops. the fall of avdiivka is russia's biggest win in ukraine for months. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky blames diminishing supplies of western weapons. after us presidentjoe biden spoke with mr zelensky saturday morning, the white house said ukrainian soldiers had to ration ammunition due to dwindling supplies as a result of congressional inaction. 0ur correspondent andrew harding is in the donbas region, not far from avdiivka. ukrainian troops film themselves as they withdraw from avdiivka, exhausted after the longest and perhaps