{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Poland government offers struggling farmers hope' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d330d8eafeecae1e7c38' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d330d8eafeecae1e7c38' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nPoland government offers struggling farmers hope\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=\"\u003e/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eLife has always been hard for Witold Pogorzelski, a farmer in eastern Poland. Fuel shortages in the communist era prevented him from transporting his produce. In the capitalist era, the nearby sugar factory that provided an income to him...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eLife has always been hard for Witold Pogorzelski, a farmer in eastern Poland. Fuel shortages in the communist era prevented him from transporting his produce. In the capitalist era, the nearby sugar factory that provided an income to him and his wife was forced to close.But now, as the 64-year-old prepares for retirement, he feels like there's finally a bit of hope.He and his wife Barbara are among those who voted for the populist Law and Justice party, which won power in 2015 promising to help those left behind by the inequalities of Poland's free-market era, to protect traditional Catholic values and to rebuild national pride.The party won 38 percent of the vote nationally, which gave it a majority in parliament. But here in Kobylin-Borzymy, a modest rural community about a 2-and-a-half-hour drive northeast of Warsaw, the party won 85 percent. Support was also very high in many surrounding communities, making this the heartland of a populist revolt bringing radical change to the Central European nation of 38 million people.Months before Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) or the United States elected President Donald Trump, Poles booted out their own political establishment, a pro-business and pro-European party, Civic Platform, which had governed for eight years.Since then, Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has pushed a populist agenda, boosting welfare spending while consolidating the party's power in a style critics call authoritarian. Law and Justice has eroded the independence of state institutions, including the judiciary and the media, alarming the EU and liberal Poles and sparking street protests in Polish cities for more than a year.But there is little support for those protests in Kobylin-Borzymy, where priests use their pulpits to boost the party's image, and where most people echo the government's argument that the protests are just attempts by political losers to preserve a rigged system.Many across Poland believe the country's previous leadership was numb to the struggles of those rural communities, which have enjoyed little of the economic boom that followed Poland's EU accession in 2004. Poland has enjoyed uninterrupted growth for more than a quarter century, even during 2008 financial crisis. But that new wealth has been distributed unequally, transforming Poland's cities but leaving behind places like Kobylin-Borzymy, which sees its youth flee for better opportunities.\"It is getting empty, empty houses stand here, everyone has fled\", said Pogorzelski, whose five children have all either moved to the nearest city, Bialystok, or commute there daily for work. A local sugar factory used to buy the beets that he grew and also employed his wife, but it was shuttered under the market economy rules. Now he raises cattle and grows wheat and barley, earning just enough for a very modest life. EU agricultural subsidies are irregular and often late, he added.The Pogorzelskis and many others welcome the populist government's benefits: free medications for the elderly, higher pensions, a lower retirement age, a hike in the minimum wage from 10 zlotys (2.32 US dollars) per hour to 12 zlotys (2.79 US dollars). Most popular, however, is the party's flagship programme: monthly cash payments of 500 zlotys (125 US dollars) for all second and subsequent children in a family up to the age of 18. Very poor families with only one child also qualify.In a place where social life centres on the local Catholic church, the Law and Justice party's defence of conservative values is crucial to its appeal.Leszek Mezynski, a Wysokie Mazowieckie County council member, says the more liberal message put forward by the likes of the KOD (Committee for the Defence of Democracy movement) does not resonate in areas such as his. But even this land of believers has its dissenters.Jolanta Jedruczek, a 50-year-old funeral home owner, believes the cash bonuses for children are helpful to many, including to her daughter, who has two children. But she worries that Poles will eventually be taxed more to pay for the expensive programme. She is also critical of the deep conservatism in the community, especially the unchallenged authority of priests.The ruling party inherited a sound budget from the previous government and so far can afford the payments.Government statistics show 16,000 more births in 2016 compared to the previous year, an important achievement for a country with a low birthrate and a shrinking population. The Centre for Social and Economic Research in Warsaw says it's still too soon to quantify how many have been pulled from poverty thanks to the child payments.National polls put support for Law and Justice at around 40 percent, which is high in a multi-party system like Poland's and more than twice the support for Civic Platform, the main opposition party.Kobylin-Borzymy - 13 February 2017 1. Wide of church, car driving on street 2. Local resident riding a bicycle3. Tractor driving past wooden, abandoned house 4. Posters on wall of wooden, abandoned house reading (English): \"Smile\" 5. Wide of wooden houses 6. Witold Pogorzelski, local resident, opening doors to cowshed 7. Various of Pogorzelski looking into cowshed 8. Various of cattle inside cowshed  9. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Witold Pogorzelski, local resident:\"It is getting empty, empty houses stand here, everyone has fled.\" (Reporter : \"Why?\") \"It's not worth it to work (here).\"10. Various of Pogorzelski carrying hay to cowshed 11. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Witold Pogorzelski, local resident:\"There are too many parties. Everybody wants (power).\" (Reporter: \"Do you think it's all about power?\") \"About power, yes. About all of the state subsidies.\"12. Bicycle in snow13. Barbara Pogorzelska, local resident and Pogorzelski's wife, pulling cart with wood 14. Pogorzelska in the kitchen, cooking15. Close of pan 16. Wide of couple in the kitchen 17. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Barbara Pogorzelska, local resident:\"Just like in the farm, if something goes wrong, then it is hard, and it takes a long time to fix it. That's the same way with the government.\"18. Close of Pogorzelska's face19. Couple in the kitchen 20. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Barbara Pogorzelska, local resident:\"Simply, there is too much of everything, whatever you look at, everywhere is just about politics and politics, here they are arguing, there they are arguing. I say: a bit of calm.\"21. Pull focus from fence in foreground to wooden house behind 22. Wide of street with wooden houses, church in background 23. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Wojciech Mojkowski, Kobylin-Borzymy's mayor:\"People have confidence in (Jaroslaw) Kaczynski (Law and Justice party leader). Maybe there is a need or they feel the need for someone to govern with a heavier hand. Here, the majority of the population is Catholic.\"24. Wide of street, shop and street vendor 25. Jolanta Jedruczek, owner of a small funeral firm, buying clothes in street 26. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Jolanta Jedruczek, owner of a small funeral firm:\"OK, one will get (cash bonuses), but the government has to find the money somehow. From where? They have to rip off from taxpayers. They must look somewhere for income to fill the budget.\"27. Exterior of post office28. Close of post box29. Woman entering post office 30. Various of snow-covered fields, Kobylin-Borzymy village in background Kobylin-Kruszewo - 14 February 2017 31. Various of woman chopping wood  32. Various of woman and her son chopping wood next to tractor 33. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Leszek Mezynski, member of Council, Wysokie Mazowieckie County:\"They hope that Poland will become a healthy nation. Although a lot of people travel to the West, to the US, and make good money there, but there is no approval for this western lifestyle. It is not an explicit idea, as though there is this instinctive defence against the flooding by genderism or homosexual ideas, these things.\"34. Mezynski's hands35. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Leszek Mezynski, member of Council, Wysokie Mazowieckie County:\"These protests, so to speak, what KOD (The Committee for the Defence of Democracy movement) organised, people are strongly against them. The opposition has no other way of making its point than by this political adventurism. KOD's slogans of defence of democracy definitely, definitely do not have resonance here. Let me say so.\"36. Various of Mezynski helping to load chopped wood  37. Pan from Mezynski to tractor with wood 38. Tractor loaded with wood driving away 39. 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