2009 in Poland

It is this time of the year, when public institutions close their budgets and newspapers start to make summaries and try to answer if the year was good or bad. How was the 2009 for Poland?

It is not easy to answer if it was bad or a good year, but it can be said that it was definitely interesting. Poland was the only country in Europe that managed to have expanding GDP. On the other hand the expanding budget gap, that resulted in deep cuts for 2010, was the price the country had to pay for the global financial crisis.

It was definitely a good year for Polish art, as many little projects could be financed. It was due to the crisis that made producers cancel their high budget films that will have to wait for better times. Thanks to this the Ministry of Culture had more money to give to less commercial projects that turned out to be highly successful.

It was a mixed year in sports. People like Justyna Kowalczyk, Adam Małysz, Szymon Ziółkowski or Marcin Gortat made us proud. Also first gold medal in years for Polish men's volleyball team as well as bronze for handball team were on the upsides of this year. On the other hand corruption in Polish football, lack of qualification to World Cup is South Africa as well as quick exit of Polish clubs from European Competitions was the biggest disappointment of this year.

However the most important question is how was 2009 for Polish society. It can be said that it was quite a good year despite couple of tragedies including fire in Kamieniec Pomorski or mine shaft collapse in Ruda Śląska. Poles are still afraid of loosing their jobs due to the crisis, but they seem to hope for the better in near future.

For this reason I would like to use this opportunity to wish Poland and all poland.com news section readers a successful New Year 2010.