Councillors in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, have voted to ban the sale of alcohol in shops between midnight and 5.30 a.m. The new measures, which will go into force on 1 July, will still allow alcohol to be sold in bars and restaurants.
On Wednesday, residents of the city, which is a popular tourist destination, attended a debate ahead of the council’s vote.
“All-night drinking parties are organised in every square in this city,” complained one, quoted by broadcaster TVN. “Do we want to be the drinking capital of Europe?” asked another. “Is [the Old Town] a place to live or a place to drink?”
Last year, the municipal authorities surveyed more than 11,000 residents – in a city with a population of over 800,000 – and found that 54% were in favour of the ban.
Kraków has been chosen as Europe's best city break destination for the third year running https://t.co/QRsdRbSccy
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During yesterday’s debate, however, independent councillor Wojciech Krzysztonek argued that the ban was simply a way for the authorities to avoid dealing with the underlying problems.
“This is a bit of an admission of powerlessness,” he argued. “Do residents expect a ban? No. What they do expect is for us to solve the problem of the customers of these shops who are disrupting order, the peace and quiet of the night.”
Conversely, another councillor, Tomasz Daros of Civic Platform, called for even tighter regulations for the Old Town district, with sales banned from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. But his proposal was rejected. Eventually, 32 councillors voted in favour of the midnight to 5:30 a.m. ban, with five abstentions and no one opposed.
Similar bans have already been introduced by the cities of Katowice, Poznań and Wrocław and Zakopane, among others. The idea has also been discussed in Warsaw.
The mountain resort town of Zakopane has banned the sale of alcohol in shops between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. in an effort to reduce antisocial behaviour.
Other Polish cities have already introduced similar measures and the idea has been discussed in Warsaw https://t.co/SatD7bfJlY
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For Kraków, this is the second attempt to introduce a ban. A previous move in 2018 was overruled by a court, which found that it violated the principle of equality because it only applied in one district of the city, reports Wirtualna Polska.
Subsequently, in September 2019, sales were restricted as part of a voluntary programme, with 154 businesses committing not to sell alcohol between midnight and 5.30 a.m.
According to police data, by early 2020 the number of interventions in the vicinity of liquor stores fell by 7%, but the programme was later scrapped due to the pandemic and the difficult economic situation for businesses.
All-night alcohol sales are provided by around 300 shops in Kraków. According to the city, in 2022 alcohol sales in shops made up around 68% of the total value of all alcohol sales in Kraków, but it is not known how these figures compare for specific times of the day.
Drinking alcohol on the boulevards that line the Vistula River in Warsaw – a popular meeting spot – is permitted, Poland’s top administrative court has ruled in a victory for the city's mayor https://t.co/jAmPQp1zqu
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Main image credit: David Corral / flickr.com (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
