Skip to main content

Poland chooses more wisely

After six European countries in 10 days, I return to the white nights of Tallinn ready to face a large pile of work. However, I must now catch up with the writing of this blog which has been much neglected of late.

I spent about a week in Hungary, spending time with several American friends, then a quick trip to Estonia's southern neighbours: Latvia and Lithuania and then a trip to Warsaw. While in Warsaw I witnessed with friends (and several relatives of the new President) the election of Bronislaw Komerowski as the fourth President of the Polish III Republic.

The second round of the election was a straight choice between Komerowski and the twin brother of the late President, killed in the Smolensk air disaster, Lech Kaczynski. Jaroslaw "Jarek" Kaczynski has previously served as Prime Minister, when his brother first became President. Jarek Kaczynski is- to say the least- a controversial figure. A profound Social Conservative, he is close to the most reactionary figures in the Catholic church, several of whom chose to denounce -the no less Catholic- Mr. Komerowski from the pulpit. Mr. Kaczynski's follows included some of the most backwoods elements of Polish Society who seem determined to offend their opponents for the slightest deviation from their perceived true path of Nationalist, Catholic Conservative and defensive Polish identity.

Mr Komerowski, on the other hand, as a member of the ruling Civic Platform, is far closer to the true spirit of the Solidarity movement which opposed Communism in the 1980s- indeed he was imprisoned under Communism twice. However his vision for Poland is far more open and much more tolerant- unlike either of the Kaczynski brothers, he has spoken approvingly of secular policies, such as greater freedom for homosexuals, for example. Almost all of the leaders of the Solidarity Movement, including Lech Walesa and Tadeusz Mazowiecki have supported Mr. Komerowski's campaign.

Had Mr. Kaczynski been elected there would have been a return the the hostilities of the Kulturkampf that was taking place between the late President Kaczynski and the government of the centrist Civic Platform under Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Indeed Jarek Kaczynski might have been even more divisive than his relatively calmer brother.

This is not to say that the Tusk government may now rest on its laurels.

The vote for Mr. Kaczynski- no doubt influenced by sympathy for him after the death of his brother- was nonetheless still impressive. Despite the occasionally almost paranoid tone of the two brothers in the last few years in both domestic and international policy, which seemed set to mark the certain defeat of President Lech Kaczynksi in the scheduled election in October, the margin of victory for the Civic Platform was very narrow. Mr. Kaczynski seemed revivified in the campaign, and some subtle changes of tone helped prevent the dramatic defeat that once seemed likely for him and his party.

Nevertheless, despite the economic success of the Tusk government, the battles of the Kulturkampf remain as shrill as ever. The power of Polonia Semper Fidelis remains strong, together with the almost unchallenged role of the church. Any attempt to challenge the deeply conservative elements in the Roman Catholic church must be handled carefully: despite the full throated opposition that several Conservative priests have voiced, the government continues to give their views and exaggerated respect.

In one year's time, the Parliamentary elections will be held, and the backwoodsmen will be back in that campaign as strong as ever. It is time for the Prime Minister to push forward a more radical economic policy, which he may now do without the sniping of a President Kaczynski.

As one of Mr. Komerowski's relatives said at the election night party: Poland usually does do the right thing, but generally only when all the other alternatives have been exhausted.

Comments

pepe said…
It's also worth to say that two( one officially, one unofficially) leaders of Polish Conservative Liberalism front(http://partiawip.pl/, http://www.upr.org.pl/), gave their support for Mr. Kaczyński.
"economic success of the Tusk government" is a myth, but it's issue for separate post.
here is Polish government debt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51796428@N05/4770978988/
Late President, L. Kaczyński used 17vetos by 4years, L. Walesa made 22v/5y, A. Kwasniewski 35v/10y( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqihgQS-Vro )/watch?v=CqihgQS-Vro ).
I live in Poland( and have no friends in Civic Platform ;) )

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have no notewo

Bournemouth absence

Although I had hoped to get down to the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this year, simple pressure of work has now made that impossible. I must admit to great disappointment. The last conference before the General Election was always likely to show a few fireworks, and indeed the conference has attracted more headlines than any other over the past three years. Some of these headlines show a significant change of course in terms of economic policy. Scepticism about the size of government expenditure has given way to concern and now it is clear that reducing government expenditure will need to be the most urgent priority of the next government. So far it has been the Liberal Democrats that have made the running, and although the Conservatives are now belatedly recognising that cuts will be required they continue to fail to provide even the slightest detail as to what they think should guide their decisions in this area. This political cowardice means that we are expected to ch