“Law and Injustice”. How Poland’s ruling party is leading the country towards leaving the EU

From east to west

In 1989, the Communist Party lost power in Poland. The communists left the country in a terrible state: gigantic inflation and external debt, outdated industry, low living standards of citizens. Few hoped that it would be possible to get out of such a hole in the foreseeable future. But the program of tough market reforms invented by Leszek Balcerowicz quickly began to bear fruit.

Poland was admitted to NATO in 1999, to the EU a few years later, in 2004, and few authoritative Polish politicians doubted that membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance was a historic chance for deep modernization, for strengthening the country’s security, for an increase in the standard of living of citizens. In the eyes of Western politicians, Poland chose the right path, the country regularly held open democratic elections, no one violated the freedom of speech, and the judicial system retained its independence. The country successfully fought corruption, and the pace of economic growth was impressive.

Although the supporters of such a decision won at the referendum on the country’s accession to the EU, we must not forget that even then protest voices sounded quite loudly in the country. First of all, Catholic fundamentalists warned that integration with Western countries would entail the destruction of Christian values, traditional for Poles. The Polish Catholic Church was frightened by empty churches and churches in the West and tolerance. The LGBT movement was particularly allergic to Catholic fundamentalists. Yes, they said, Poland is a European country, but it is connected with Christian Europe, the one that it was at its origins, and not the one that follows the path of atheism and godlessness.

However, the country’s leadership, headed by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, managed to convince the Catholic hierarchy to support the country’s accession to the EU. Pope John Paul II played an important role in this issue, who understood that the economic development of Poland and its security primarily depend on integration with Western countries and the institutions they built. Recalling how he managed to enlist the support of the church, Kwasniewski, almost twenty years later, told how the government made concessions and signed an agreement with the Vatican in 1998, which gives the Catholic Church in Poland great privileges (including financial ones).

Benefits of EU membership

Immediately after joining the EU, criticism began to appear less frequently in the media space. The Poles liked the fact that, along with the integration with Europe, they received the legal right to work in countries with significantly higher wages. Hundreds of thousands of Poles rushed to the West. The Polish farmers liked the direct subsidies coming from Brussels. The Poles saw how, with the support of Brussels, they began to build new modern roads in Poland, what subsidies went to equipment for the medical sector. Students enthusiastically accepted the Erasmus program, which allowed many to study at the best universities in Europe. And finally, Poland was admitted to the Schengen zone, it was possible to finally say goodbye to passports and visas for travel in Europe.

Did you feel bad in France or Ireland? Do you need to see a doctor? Now, if necessary, Poles can use the healthcare system in other EU countries free of charge. You need to apply for a European health insurance card in your country and then present it in European hospitals and clinics. The decision of the European Commission was enthusiastically adopted, forcing European mobile operators to cancel high tariffs for their services in roaming. Traveling to Sweden or would you like to call Portugal? Please call as long as you like. These calls are already included in your contract, they are equated to calls to subscribers of your own country.

In European structures, they began to appreciate the Poles, they began to offer them the highest positions. In 2009, Jerzy Buzek was elected President of the European Parliament, and from 2014 to 2019, former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held the post of President of the European Council. And most importantly, from 2004 to 2020, Poland received $ 190 billion from the EU budget (its contributions during this period amounted to 60 billion). What these huge funds were spent on can be seen at every step.

Party “Law and Justice” takes power

However, in 2015, the populist-nationalist Law and Justice Party won the parliamentary elections. A kind of cultural revolution took place in Poland, which entailed a radical substitution of concepts. Now Lech Walesa is not a hero and leader in the struggle for freedom, but a loser and an employee of the communist special services. Balcerowicz’s reforms brought Poland not prosperity and accelerated economic growth, but the suffering of significant segments of the Polish population, unemployment and a surge in prices. During the war, there was no anti-Semitism in Poland, but the Poles heroically saved Jews from death at the hands of Nazi executioners. It is not some incomprehensible Hitlerites who are responsible for the war, but the Germans, the German nation, which has not yet compensated Poland for its enormous losses. There was no plane crash near Smolensk; the plane fell after an explosion organized by the Kremlin. The real hero, the leader of the struggle for freedom is now the then deceased President Lech Kaczynski (buried in the royal tomb on the Wawel Hill in Krakow), the twin brother of the chairman of the ruling party, Jaroslav.

For Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country’s previous course aimed at unconditional deep integration with the EU did not stand up to criticism. Strengthening state sovereignty is a priority for him. Brussels will not dictate to Poland what laws to adopt and how to behave in domestic and international politics. PiS politicians and supporters speak a different language from the leaders of the previous era. Now at every step we hear about patriotism, a homeland that needs to be defended and which has risen from its knees, traditional values, the importance of the family, no official event can do without representatives of the episcopate.

Taking tight control over state television and a number of print and online publications, Kaczynski and his party turned the media they controlled into an instrument of anti-European propaganda. The broadcast says: “Stop enduring oppression from Brussels. These comrades do not respect our sovereignty, they impose on us their values, ideas about life that have nothing to do with our traditional Christian morality. ” “Europe, where are you going, where are you going?” – a few years ago shouted from the rostrum of the European Parliament Beata Szydlo, now a MEP from PiS, formerly the head of the Polish government. The politicians PiS, speaking on the first channel of Polish television, have repeatedly called the blue European flag a crumpled rag. Repeatedly, on the same channel, one could observe how indignant supporters of PiS burned the European flag at their rallies. While the previous presidents Kwasniewski and Komorowski always delivered their official messages against the backdrop of Polish and European flags, the current head of state, Andrzej Duda, allows only the Polish one to be installed.

In the eyes of Kaczynski, the EU is almost completely under the control of Germany, which seeks to strengthen its leading position, including in the east of the continent. “We survived the German occupation during the war, and we will survive the Brussels occupation,” Marek Suski, one of the most influential politicians of PiS, said recently. Party propagandists often and willingly emphasize that former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council of Europe Tusk is not working for the good of his homeland, but “für Deutschland”, for the good of Germany (at this time, the viewer is shown a picture of Tusk with Merkel in the Bundestag). But what Germany she is, they explain from the TV screen – what a hypocritical policy she has regarding the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. We warned them that the approval of the construction and launch of the gas pipeline violates the energy solidarity of Europe. Nord Stream 2 is very dangerous for Poland, but Germany does not want to see it, they think only of themselves, turn a blind eye to Putin’s aggressive policy.

Immediately after coming to power, “Law and Justice” took up the “reform” of the judicial system. It hardly needs explaining what is the essence of the reform carried out by the populist government, striving for an authoritarian model of government. This is not about increasing the efficiency of courts – it will become easier for the authorities to control the judiciary, so that the courts operate on the basis of telephone law, making decisions that meet expectations.

A wave of protests against judicial reform has swept across Poland, with the majority of 10,000 Polish judges opposing it. In Brussels, the regarded as a direct attempt to destroy the foundations of the democratic system. The Polish government lost a number of trials on this issue in the European court in Luxembourg. Annoyed by this position of the EU, the PiS politicians only toughened up their anti-European rhetoric.

The leaders of the ruling party would like the EU’s competence to be limited to the regulation of economic processes, and not to extend to the internal policies of countries. What they dislike is that, according to the latest EU decisions, the payment of subsidies is now dependent on countries’ compliance with legal regulations.

Several Polish regions and urban formations, in which local power belongs to Kaczynski’s party, tried to pass resolutions defining their territories as “zones free of LGBT propaganda.” The reaction of Brussels was lightning fast: all these regulations must be immediately canceled, otherwise all territories that have preserved them will lose subsidies that are significant for the local budget. Opponents of LGBT people in this case surrendered, but in unofficial speeches they scolded the EU for interfering in internal Polish affairs.

Now the payment to Poland of the funds provided for by the European economic recovery plan after the pandemic hangs in the balance. PiS does not want to comply with the decisions of the European Court, canceling some elements of the so-called judicial reform. We do not need your money, politicians say; some of this money is cheap loans. We can borrow that kind of money on international financial markets, and no one will dictate to us how to pursue a policy in Poland.

Will Poland leave the EU?

It would seem that Kaczynski, the leader of Law and Justice, cannot surprise anyone with his anti-European rhetoric. However, in his speech on the next anniversary of the restoration of Poland, he uttered words that caused alarm among those Poles who believe that only an alliance with the West gives the country security guarantees: “We also have a big problem with the West. It is clear that we are talking about the recognition of our subjectivity, about our right to decide independently internal Polish affairs. “

It is clear that in such a situation, the current Polish leadership is in no way interested in EU support in resolving the crisis on the Belarusian border. Although the Polish-Belarusian border is at the same time one of the external borders of the EU and the Schengen zone, no one is going to invite even representatives of Frontex, the European Union’s agency for the security of external borders, there.

Is the Law and Justice Party going to follow in the footsteps of Great Britain and withdraw Poland from the EU? When they are asked such a question in the forehead and publicly, leaders, such as Prime Minister Moravetsky, pretend that they are surprised at its absurdity. “Poland’s place is in Europe,” they declare loudly, but in fact they are doing everything to denigrate the EU in the eyes of the population and sow doubts about the advisability of membership.

PiS understands that so far the overwhelming majority of the population does not see Poland outside the EU. All recent opinion polls confirm that Poles are among the most staunch supporters of European integration among the European powers. But if in order to join the European Union it was necessary to hold a national referendum, then in order to leave the EU, according to the Constitution, it is enough to vote for the corresponding decision in parliament. And if the ruling party wins the parliamentary elections in 2023, this will be a cause for alarm among supporters of European integration.

When PiS took power into its own hands in 2015, much of what was done later seemed impossible. It seemed that state television could not be turned into a propaganda machine for one party. It seemed impossible to impose a strict ban on abortion. It seemed that state support for openly fascist organizations would never be possible. Everyone who thought so was wrong. PiS is ready to make any decisions, regardless of the possible consequences. The leaders have their own idea of ​​what Poland should become after rising from its knees. And the belief that nothing can stop them from reaching the ultimate goal. Sometimes you might think that even in the behavior of the Bolsheviks there was more of a kind of pragmatism.