As for the parliamentary elections, I felt much more uncertain. Like many others, I took the possibility of a coalition around the Law and Justice Party into account. In this variant, the president’s office in the hands of Komorowski became strategically important to prevent various anti-reforms (e.g. lowering the retirement age). I also did not rule out a weak coalition around the Civic Platform.
In the recent weeks thousands of Polish women have been demonstrating on the streets to protest against the total ban on abortion. The radical proposal formally came from a marginal conservative NGO, yet it was eagerly supported by the PM, her government and Polish bishops.
A letter from American senators to PM Beata Szydlo, a visit from the Venice Commission, a debate about the situation in our country in the European Parliament: what else has to happen for the Law and Justice’s government to open their eyes and see what is going on?
Last Thursday marked another important landmark of the constitutional crisis in Poland. Law and Justice – the Poland’s ruling party – appointed in a parliamentary voting another member of the Constitutional Court. The light in the tunnel is gone. Law and Justice provided the ultimate evidence of its unwillingness to solve the crisis in a democratic way.
The new Polish right-wing government is often labelled as nationalistic, populistic and radical. However it tries to reject this epithets, they are all true. The “good change” is a political slogan of the Law and Justice government that marks the major shift that has recently been introduced in Poland.
Due to the lack of a two-third majority which would enable Law and Justice to change the Constitution officially and to implement the ideas similar to those of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, the governing party is often hovering on the edge of breaching the Constitution.
Whether we like it or not, getting closer to Budapest means not only drifting away from Berlin and Brussels, but also from Washington. The political position of Poland in the world states its power in Europe. But a strong position in Europe shouldn’t be built in a way that the Law and Justice does it. In such way, you can only lose this position.
The sphere of entitlement and privileges of authorities and the sphere of rights and freedoms of citizens form a relationship which is characterised by inevitable and perpetual tensions. Every political system – may it be liberalism or democracy – works the same way.
With the president who is not willing to perform his duties as the guardian of the Constitution, it seems that it is thanks to the EU membership that there is still a kind of a safety net for Poland. Joining the EU back in 2004 now, in the light of the government that has set out to question the basic principles of European democracy, may prove a real lifesaver.
