Poland

Last winter, the polls of trust for Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski varied between strong 60 to 80%. Almost no one could have predicted that only four months later he will lose the elections to a young, 43 years old, unknown presidential candidate of the radically right Law and Justice party. Komorowski, supported by the Civic Platform, was defeated twice. And this means that we have entered a completely new age of Polish politics.

The spectrum of hate speech is very broad, varying from hatred to extremely abusive forms of prejudice. Oxford English Dictionary defines hate as “an emotion of extreme dislike or aversion; detention, abhorrence, hatred”. And often the qualification of an action as “extreme” is treated as a decisive parameter in defining hate speech.

The presidential project of the fiscal ordinance was supposed to improve this complex situation. The uncertainties in regulations were supposed to be interpreted in favour of the taxpayers. In other words, the responsibility for legal errors (bungles) would lie on the national state and not on physical persons.

For years, liberals have been struggling to lower and simplify Polish taxes. The results are, however, rather “moderate”, labour cost remains high, the dream of PIT flat tax – once a flagship project of the Civic Platform – is rarely even mentioned, and the recent governmental “temporarily” raised VAT rate to 23% seems to be becoming permanent. Every year, taxes and charges to the benefit of the state, not visible at first glance, are raised.

Yes, I am a liberal, and despite the fact that many Poles consider this word a slap in the face, I don't feel ashamed by making this statement (let's treat it as a sort of political “coming out”). Why am I writing about it now? Well, because after the campaign “Secular School” has been launched, I got bored with constantly explaining the differences between a liberal and a leftwinger.

Liberté! has recently launched a campaign to create a civic legislative initiative that aims at putting an end to financing religion lessons from state budget. The project has reached the leading media in Poland and has stirred up public opinion in a manner that Poles have not seen for a long time.

Laurels shall be awarded to a smooth transition in the party and the government after Donald Tusk left for Brussels. First, he ensured not having any \'number two\' in Civic Platform (he devoted the last two years to getting rid of Grzegorz Schetyna). Next, out of the blue, before the internal opposition was able to react and close its ranks in time, he appointed Ewa Kopacz to take his place.

The main issue of the Ida debate, noticeable also in other societies, is an expectation that art will reflect our perception of the world. Books, movies and music should be well suited to be used against opponents. We don’t like art that induces questions and raises doubts. It should rather remain in line with our expectations and convictions. And that\'s not just our Polish problem.

Orbán is interested only in cash, not in values. His disregard for values or (to make it sound more proudly) for ethos of Western democracy continues for years and is expressed in many constitutional reforms or a positive evaluation of the model of the political system of modern China. He therefore easily avoids the topic of Ukraine\'s right to sovereignty, self-reliance in international politics and territorial integrity.

A few days ago the European Commission confirmed the last of the Polish operation programmes for the years 2014-2020. Media and public opinion have welcomed the decision with a wave of enthusiasm, glad that just in a few more weeks the first call for proposals shall be announced. But is this enthusiasm really valid in the present circumstances?