Xenophobic,
authoritarian – and generous on welfare: how Poland’s right rules
Remi Adekoya
Tuesday 25 October
2016 09.15 BST
The
Law and Justice party’s enduring popularity after a year in power
should serve as a warning for liberals across Europe
Not since the
communist era has a Polish government faced as much criticism from
the west as the one in charge today. It is now exactly a year since
Law and Justice (PiS), a socially conservative, Eurosceptic and
nationalist party, swept to power, winning a parliamentary majority
with 37.5% of the vote. This followed the triumph of PiS’s Andrzej
Duda in the earlier presidential election, giving the party full
control over Poland’s executive arm of government.
Since then, the
ruling party has come under heavy fire from western media and
institutions, which have accused it of dismantling democracy with
policies designed to limit civil liberties, control media, politicise
the civil service and neuter judicial independence. In July this
year, the European commission issued Warsaw with a three-month
ultimatum to address threats to the rule of law or face potential
sanctions. PiS reacted scornfully, with party leader Jarosław
Kaczyński calling the commission’s ultimatum “amusing”.
Kaczyński has also been widely criticised in Europe for claiming
migrants arriving on the continent could cause “epidemics” due to
“various parasites and protozoa, which don’t affect their
organisms, but which could be dangerous here”.
Yet, despite the
barrage of critical opinions from the western world, which Poles have
historically aspired to, PiS remains the most popular party in
Poland, currently polling at 38%, which is higher than the combined
support of all other parliamentary parties put together. There are
several reasons for this, revealing dynamics observable not only in
the wider eastern European region, but further west as well.
While PiS is
strongly rightwing on social issues, its economic approach can be
described as leftist. It emphasises the need to tackle inequality and
propagates strong welfare policies. It introduced unconditional
monthly cash payments equivalent to £100 for all parents who have
more than one child towards the upkeep of each subsequent child until
he or she is 18. So if you have three children, you get £200 per
month and so forth. For parents with one child, the payment is
conditional on low income.
No previous
government ever embarked on such a generous social programme. PiS’s
approach puts many Polish leftists in a bind. On the one hand, they
deplore the party’s unashamedly xenophobic rhetoric; on the other,
they like its economic views, especially in comparison to the main
opposition parties, Civic Platform and Nowoczesna, both dominated by
folk still enamoured with Hayek. In effect, some on Poland’s left
are not as mobilised against PiS as they could be.
While the west may
have considered post-communist Poland a model of free-market success,
many Poles felt marginalised in a society where successive
governments espoused a “sink or swim” attitude towards citizens,
irrespective of whether it was the left or the right in power.
Individual success was emphasised above all. PiS’s more
communitarian approach is appealing to many Poles who feel they now
have a government interested in more than just macro-economic
indicators.
‘Jarosław
Kaczyński has been widely criticised in Europe for claiming migrants
arriving on the continent could cause ‘epidemics’.’ Photograph:
Kacper Pempel/Reuters
A second factor in
PiS’s continued popularity is that western Europe, where most
criticism of the ruling party stems from, is now viewed far more
critically than before by many Poles. PiS and its rightwing media
allies are successfully portraying it as a den of politically correct
madness, where hopelessly naive policies have put Europeans at
increased risk of Islamic terrorism and being overrun by migrants.
EU elites are
portrayed as fanatical multiculturalists and secularists who are
furious that a traditionally oriented, non-politically correct
government is in control of Poland. Meanwhile, Kaczyński insists:
“It is completely untrue that to achieve western levels of
development, we have to adopt their social models. That is hogwash.”
He insists Poland can achieve western-level economic development
while maintaining age-old traditional Polish values and remaining a
homogenous white Catholic country. In an age when much of Europe is
facing an identity crisis, this message is resonating.
A few years ago, no
Polish government would have been able to get away with openly
defying EU institutions without losing credibility domestically. But
western opinion no longer has that kind of influence in Poland,
especially among the numerically dominant conservatives. This is one
of the most significant mental shifts in contemporary Poland and
signals a new era in societal attitudes towards the west, one in
which its economic development remains admired, but its cosmopolitan
liberal values are largely rejected.
PiS also remains
popular because while Kaczyński is highly controversial and
generally disliked, the official faces of the government, Beata
Szydło, the prime minister, and Duda, the president, are both
personable unassuming types who help the party maintain a folksy
image. There is currently no leftist party in parliament and the
liberal opposition is weak and divided. Moreover, both opposition
party leaders, Grzegorz Schetyna of Civic Platform and Ryszard Petru
of Nowoczesna, are nauseatingly opportunistic, the kind of
politicians who won’t take a public stance on any issue till
they’ve seen at least half a dozen opinion polls. People are sick
of sly, calculating politicos; these days people value authenticity,
even if they disagree with their views. PiS employs crude rhetoric,
but comes across as authentic.
Barring any major
political or economic earthquakes, PiS will likely rule Poland for a
while to come, providing momentum to the generally Eurosceptic,
illiberal and authoritarian tendencies currently triumphing in
eastern Europe. Its success should serve as a warning bell to
liberals and leftists in the whole of Europe. A growing number of
people are becoming increasingly willing to tolerate authoritarian
and xenophobic tendencies from parties that offer them a sense of
community and security.
Ignoring this
reality won’t make it go away. On the contrary, if we don’t
respond adequately to this dynamic, we might all soon wake up in a
Europe where parties similar to PiS have suddenly become the
mainstream.
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