Supposedly Poland has a right wing government that is cementing power, and there are lots of protests due to creeping authoritarianism.
Is this a real threat to democracy in Poland or is it hype?
If the law and justice party is so unpopular, how did they get across the board majorities in the government?
Detailed analysis here
I didn’t read it all the way to the end but the jist is that while Poles are western leaning and gald to be part of the EU they are fairly conservative socially (more so than other EU nations) and the less conservative groups in power until the last year and half or so, kind of shit the bed with very arrogant behavior opening up the door the conservatives.
I should have read further there is apparently more to the scandal and it’s not the less conservative elites that are arrogant, it’s all of them. .
There is a trend towards rightwing populism in many countries, not just in Europe, with variations dependent on different circumstances and histories. Poland, Slovakia and Hungary all have a similarly authoritarian trend. Further west Islamophobia is a more of a keynote, but authoritarianism and constitutional shenanigans not on the agenda; further east homophobia is a more noticeable theme.
If you’re looking for deep causes, well, increasing economic and social uncertainty in the face of change, loss of job status and the overhang from the financial crisis and the perceived inequity of outcomes (who actually came off worse as a result of it, as compared with those to blame for it) all have their part to play.
Interesting article here today:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/16/conspiracy-theorists-who-have-taken-over-poland
IMO **PatrickLondon **nailed it.
You can look to Poland as a harbinger of what rampant Trumpism might be doing here by 2020. Regardless of whether Trump is then the head of the movement or it’s somebody we’ve not yet heard of. IOW, it’s not about Trump per se; it’s about the attitudes of the people who’re responding to the message.
What happens in Poland is symptomatic of what is happening in Eastern and Central Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine), where people are becoming increasingly skeptical on globalization. In general, right wing authorities are less reluctant to frustrate the electorate, claiming that the willingness to listen to citizens’ every complaint is a weakness pertaining only to left wing politics.
Another factor is that over the past 15 years, a lot of young Poles left Poland to find work elsewhere. I believe they came disproportionately from the highly-educated, urban, middle-class which means that electorate became older, more rural, less educated and poorer. In particular, that’s the generation who were raised under authoritarian government and would tend to find it natural.
It’s true to a certain extent. But there are still a lot of young, smart people who enjoy their country and do not really want to leave for good. Their preference for the right wing politicians stems partly in their aversion toward that part of their culture and civilization that you mention and partly in their hatred toward Russia, which they regard as their worst archenemy.
What exactly has been happening that is authoritarian?
Now the new gvt wants to brand Walesa a traitor to the revolution
Harbingers?? Rampant Trumpism?? Has it come to this???