The government, sounding confident about its electoral mandate and absolute majority in parliament, dismisses these critics as left-wing spoilers and promises more changes to come. Backed by influential voices, Law and Justice says its job is to clean up Poland after liberal, often corrupt elites that were out of touch with its Christian and patriotic values.
Every weekend for the past few, thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Poland’s larger cities, both to support and protest Law and Justice policies.
Adam Zamoyski, a British historian of Polish origin, is the author, inter alia, of “Poland: A History” (Hippocrene, 2012) and “Warsaw 1920″ (HarperCollins, 2008).
Andrzej Duda’s election as president and the victory of the Law and Justice party (PiS) in Poland have been universally reported in the international media as “a lurch to the right.” This is highly misleading […]
Nor does their victory in last year’s elections represent any kind of lurch to the right by the electorate. It was the result of disenchantment with the previous government, which was seen as incompetent, arrogant and out of touch. People voted not so much for PiS as for change […]
Marek Magierowski is the spokesman of Polish President Andrzej Duda. He writes in his personal capacity.
The most vital challenge facing contemporary Europe is the crisis of responsibility.You can’t run a nation, let alone the whole continent, if you refuse to make difficult decisions. There is a frustrating shortage of responsible politicians amid current EU elites. When some do try to act responsibly — like Andrzej Duda in Poland — and follow the wishes and demands of their own citizens, a chorus of indignation suddenly reverberates in Brussels, Berlin or Vienna, with horror stories about a “breach of European values.”Why such outrage? The answer is amazingly simple.
By bearing the brunt of tough reforms and making good on electoral pledges, Poland’s president lays bare the irresponsibility and indolence of the very politicians who now criticize him.When Duda signs bills expected by a majority of Poles, many European leaders feel guilty about neglecting their citizens’ expectations for years. And when Duda talks about the dangers related to uncontrolled waves of immigration, his European colleagues choose to stand idle and keep mum. Our country is now run by politicians accountable to Polish voters, not to German, British or French left-wing intellectuals.But, ironically, in the eyes of some European commentators, it is Poland that “violates the foundations of democracy.” […]
[Eurocrats] excel at lecturing others about democracy, but they are afraid of their own voters. When was the last time some of them showed up at an electoral rally? When was the last time they visited an impoverish European village? Say, in eastern Poland?
Democracy is not about posturing and finger-pointing. Democracy is about responsibility. Our country is now run by politicians accountable to Polish voters, not to German, British or French left-wing intellectuals. Democracy in Poland is faring pretty well.
Tomasz Wróblewski is the editor of Wprost, a weekly magazine in Warsaw.
Journalists at our weekly well remember a summer evening in 2014 when special service officers raided our editorial offices, demanding computers and equipment on which they believed conversations of politicians from the ruling party had been stored.
The recordings given to us by our sources revealed shocking cases of abuse of power, including a conversation between the minister of the interior and the head of the central bank, where in return for interest rate cuts the minister of the interior promised to dismiss the finance minister and increase the central bank governor’s powers.
Our offices were searched and agents of the “politically independent” services physically attacked the former editor-in-chief. Endless interrogations and intimidation of our advertisers followed; the cases were only recently dropped. Our journalists weren’t aware that for many months their private phone conversations were being tapped.
It’s hard for us at Wprost to treat seriously accusations, levelled by politicians from the former ruling party and the radio and television chiefs they nominated, that the new government is attacking our freedom of speech. These are the same people who, hand in hand with disgraced politicians, accused Wprost journalists of a crime, of publishing “illegally” recorded conversations.
For those who eagerly supported the ruling party, losing their jobs will certainly be an unpleasant experience. But that’s not the end of democracy. The media market doesn’t only include the public media. And what’s happening now can in no way be compared to the police harassment previously meted out to right-wing journalists.
Wprost survived a difficult period, thanks in large part to the broad diversity of Polish media. Right-wing journalists fired from public television created new magazines, portals and radio stations. Neither the government nor any single publisher controls the market. Freedom of speech in Poland is safe.
Agnieszka Kołakowska is a journalist and translator who lives in Paris and writes for the Polish and British press.
The world’s press gets its Polish news from the same people who have just lost their power and privileges: The left-wing elites that have been in alliance with the formerly ruling Civic Platform party and who cry fascism at anyone who disagrees with their views or threatens their monopoly on what passes for an enlightened opinion. PiS is vilified for embracing traditional values, its smidgen of Euroskepticism, and its refusal to submit to bullying by the EU and Germany. Now they have lost control of the media and public institutions and are howling in outrage. Hence the talk of a fascist dictatorship and the end of democracy, freedom of the press and civil liberties.
It is shocking that this is being taken at face value; it shows just how far-reaching the influence of Poland’s left-wing elites and the liberal newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has become.
The Law and Justice party (PiS) — which won an absolute majority in both the Parliament and Senate — is vilified for embracing traditional and family values, its smidgen of Euroskepticism, its refusal to submit to bullying by the EU and Germany in particular, its emphasis on national sovereignty and its insistence that Christianity and the Church have a public role to play in Poland. None of this warrants investigation by the European Commission, let alone cries to topple the government.
It was the Civic Platform party that appointed five of its people to the Constitutional Tribunal at the last minute, resulting in 14 out of 15 judges being Civic Platform nominees. At present there are nine Civic Platform appointees. I fail to see how this is less democratic.
When Civic Platform came to power, they purged the media, appointing people who would toe the party line. Neither the foreign press nor the European Commission seemed concerned at the time. The public media were independent only in name. They were in fact controlled by Civil Platform and disseminated an endless stream of virulent anti-PiS propaganda.
Government funding for the arts was similarly partisan. Newspapers loyal to Civic Platform were subsidized under the table through government advertising. The list goes on.
Polish voters have lived through eight years of scandals, spectacular corruption, and public services that did not fulfill their purpose. The media and the judiciary were independent only in name. Voters felt they were treated with arrogance and contempt, and that Poland was too accommodating toward the EU. They were tired of being dictated to. They wanted to be proud to be Polish. They were sick of “patriotism” and “sovereignty” being treated like dirty words.
Voters want an end to cronyism and corruption. They want transparency and the affirmation of their country’s sovereignty. There is no justification whatsoever for the current hysteria over threats to Polish democracy.
