is officially designated an agricultural village But it is one where the agriculture now tends to take place elsewhere Jezowe’s fields lie mostly fallow; its workers now seek higher-paid jobs in wealthier European Union countries harvesting grapes in France and cabbages in Germany Among the village’s weathered wooden houses stand gaudy villas A grant of 525,000 zloty ($140,000) paid for the renovation of the old parsonage which now houses a museum devoted to carved figurines of Christ This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Voting for a better yesterday” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents George Simion will face Nicusor Dan, a mainstream candidate, in a run-off There are five luxuries it can no longer feasibly afford Friedrich Merz’s career is one of unforced errors and puzzling missteps. But he is serious about Europe Both Donald Trump and Ukraine’s diplomats will consider it a success Poland — The waiting room in the vaccination center in Jeżowe is empty and has been for days.  “Usually only one or two people a day come to get a shot,” said a medical staffer says she’s scared to get the vaccine: “We get all the information from the internet and nothing has yet convinced me that the vaccine is safe.” the political heartland of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party That overlap of politics and vaccine skepticism — especially prevalent in eastern and more rural parts of the country — is a growing problem for the government, already on the brink after a collapse of the ruling alliance It sees the rising danger of a fourth wave of the pandemic thanks to the increasing spread of the more contagious Delta variant The PiS-led government has done a lot to encourage people to get vaccinated: Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki his top aide Michał Dworczyk and Health Minister Adam Niedzielski have repeatedly called for Poles to get jabbed.  The government has organized a nation-wide lottery for all those who got the vaccine a competition between the counties for the highest vaccination rate and educational campaigns at schools.  But that signal is undermined by other politicians the most trusted politician in the country saying he doesn’t get vaccinated against the flu “I’m against forcing people to make such decisions because it’s a matter of personal freedom. I’m really for mobilizing, encouraging, organizing promotional campaigns [for vaccines], facilitating access, explaining. But I’m very skeptical about introducing any requirements,” he said last month adding: "I have been vaccinated because I think it's necessary due to the function I carry out Beata Maciejewska, spokesperson for the Left party, accused PiS of "flirting" with anti-vaxxer voters. "It’s meeting the expectations of their voters who don’t want to get vaccinated,” she said in parliament Vaccine skepticism is growing across the country, with attacks and fires at vaccination centers, something Niedzielski called "an act of terror." “Very often the politicians wink at anti-vaxxers,” said Michał Sutkowski spokesperson for the Polish College of Family Doctors. “Politicians should leave the subject of vaccines support the authority of science and strengthen the narrative around vaccinations and the pandemic." The church is especially strong in the regions with low vaccination rates. In its latest announcement, the Polish Catholic Bishops' Conference said vaccines are a good way of stopping the virus Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, head of the conference, earlier this month lambasted the government for dramatically limiting the ability of people to go to church during earlier waves of the pandemic, thundering: "Nothing similar has happened during the 2,000-year history of the church." many churches have set up vaccination points in a push to get more people jabbed “The clergy has a huge role and an opportunity to encourage people to do something good in a smart way,” said Stanisław Mazur a private medical practice in Podkarpackie that organized mass vaccinations.  Those conflicting signals are helping undermine the government's vaccination drive when the first vaccines started to be available in Poland and the daily mortality and infection rates were still very high people queued for hours to get their shots everyone was striving [to get a vaccine]," said Mazur. "I had many requests to vaccinate people out of sequence including proposals to vaccinate for money.” But most of those who wanted to get vaccinated have already done so and now the challenge is to encourage the undecided.   “It’s clear that the natural resource of people who want to get vaccinated has run out,” said Dworczyk.  Mazur said that now he has to hunt for willing people his staff usually only gives out five to 10 shots.  “It’d be good to have a debate in the parliament among politicians of different parties that would shape certain privileges for vaccinated people,” said Sutkowski.  Niedzielski, the health minister, has confirmed the government is “considering” mandatory vaccines for medical sector workers, but not for teachers. He also said that regions with the lowest uptake of vaccines will be the first ones where the government could introduce lockdowns if the situation gets worse during any fourth wave The political danger of locking down its core voting areas at a time when there are growing questions about an early snap election is prompting PiS to ramp up efforts to boost vaccination rates the PiS leader and Poland's de facto ruler recently warned that the unvaccinated are endangering others "Refusing a vaccination is not a question of personal freedom," he said calling such a view "extreme selfishness." "The state has the responsibility to do everything possible to have the highest level of safety against this plague of COVID-19 you can't be driven by thinking about offending a particular group of voters," he said But Karolina from Jeżowe says she’ll only get vaccinated if “someone gives her 100 percent certainty that it won’t negatively affect her.” And no politician can do that It was “embarrassing” when Niedzielski came to visit Jeżowe in July to encourage people to get vaccinated This article has been updated to correct the number of single-jab vaccinations in Jeżowe Want more analysis from POLITICO? POLITICO Pro is our premium intelligence service for professionals. From financial services to trade, technology, cybersecurity and more, Pro delivers real time intelligence, deep insight and breaking scoops you need to keep one step ahead. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial Local leaders say they urgently need more funds to address housing crunch and build schools warning that Warsaw’s proposed reforms are merely cosmetic The country hasn’t faced energy shortages despite the war — but power companies have taken a major hit The plan aims to rapidly find alternative sources of energy while ramping up energy savings and renewables Road crews in Poland stumbled upon a lost 16th-century cemetery in which the vast majority of graves belong to children some of the skeletons still have coins in their mouths a tradition that dates back to ancient times which dates back to the late 16th and early 17 centuries is located near the village of Jeżowe in southeast Poland according to Poland’s General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways The discovery corroborates both written accounts and local legends describing a cemetery dating back to this time period The bodies were carefully buried in sandy ground and oriented along an east-west axis The dead were laid down on their backs with their hands positioned at their sides Some skeletons were found to have coins inserted into their mouths “It’s certainly a sign of their beliefs,” Arkadia archaeologist Katarzyna Oleszek told The First News “The coins are called obols of the dead or Charon’s obol which dates back to ancient Greece and Rome the ferryman who delivers souls from the world of the living to the world of the dead The presence of these coins is certainly interesting from an anthropological perspective but coins can also be used by archaeologists to timestamp a site the coins were minted during the reign of Sigismund III Vasa which are associated with John II Casimir Vasa One of the more intriguing graves contains four children laid side-by-side with their heads all oriented in the same position but with their legs and feet all meeting together The leftmost child in the grave appears to have died at a very young age It’s possible that these four individuals are closely related—perhaps siblings this is no “mass grave,” as The First News incorrectly describes it This was an orderly Catholic church cemetery with no graves set atop or disturbing others The “inhabitants knew exactly where they had graves and took care of them,” said Oleszek suggesting the presence of a very poor community Speaking to Polish media outlet Gazeta Wyborcza, Oleszek said her team is likely “dealing with this part of the cemetery where only children were buried.” It’s possible that adult members of this community were buried at a yet-to-be discovered portion of the cemetery The cemetery was found in an area known as Góry Kościelne The discovery confirms local legends about a children’s cemetery in the region Written records from 1604 describe a trip to Jeżowe made by Catholic bishops from Kraków https://gizmodo.com/5-000-year-old-grave-reveals-mass-murder-of-a-bronze-ag-1834730007 We will learn a lot more about this cemetery and the people buried in it over the coming months and years as the archaeologists are planning to analyze the remains the skeletons will be reburied at a local parish church the archaeologists will mimic the layout of the original cemetery as much as possible including the burial position of the four children ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + "