We get political from time to time, that’s how we are. Remember this? Or this?

Editorial view of Re-E & a quick background to a rant that follows:

Since 2015 Poland is ruled by the nationalistic/populist Law and Justice party. While they did win every election since, they do that with big help from very political Polish Catholic Church and tightly controlled state media (how does it work? read this Guardian piece by Timothy Garton Ash. He knows this sad part of Europe). They dismantle the rule of law, violate and threaten our freedoms, they are methodically building the sort of populist autocracy Orban already has created in nearby Hungary. The usual right-wing drivel about restoring greatness of the local nation has been combined with the ritualistic hypocrisy of an entrenched Catholic Church whose officials feel threatened and yet still strong enough to hold sway over a non-negligible part of the population, and culminated in one party treating the whole economic, cultural and political system of institutions as “spoils” to be shared among their staunchest supporters.

The recent presidential elections were a chance to do something about it. A democratic president obeying the rule of law could defend the last bits of liberal democracy in Poland, instead of supporting their destruction like the president-elect did for the last 5 years. It would not reverse the current situation, as in Polish political system president has limited power, for the most important ruling body is the lower house of Parliament – but it would have at least checked the autocratic slide.

We came close, closer then ever in recent history. Rafał Trzaskowski (his TEDx speech to be found here), a liberal mayor of Warsaw, our capital city, mobilised almost half of the voters. But almost half is not enough.

Piotrek: My window, with our guy on Wilhelm Sasnal’s poster.

Continue reading “The Two Polands” →