Another Wind of Change? Poland’s Governing Party Seems to Be Struggling
Polish people are known to be resilient, passionate about their nation’s achievements, and proud of their will to persevere. Last year, the PiS-party (Law and Justice) won the parliamentary election, and has been governing the country with a firm hand since then thanks to a thin majority in the Polish parliament Sejm. Many people voted for PiS and their “promises” of change, however, a little more than a year post-election the reality is looking anything but shiny. Many former supporters and voters are disappointed by the course the government has been following, demonstrators have taken the streets regularly.
The government under Beata Szydło has made headlines with plans to reform the media laws, a strong stand against refugees and intense critique of the European Union and its institutions among other things. Due to legal changes and more or less paralysing the Constitutional Court of Poland, the EU began questioning Poland’s accordance with the values formulated in Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty, specifically the rule of law. As it was to be expected, the PiS government noticed this sourly. Once the EU mentioned possible investigations and monitoring of the situation, including a potential strip of voting rights (Article 7), Szydło and her government stated they would not tolerate to be advised on domestic decision making.
Since the new government took power, an unprecedented worsening of the relations to the former close partner Germany can be observed. The main target of critique following concerns voiced on political developments in Poland was the German government. However, following the Brexit vote in June, and consequently losing one of its main allies in the Union, the tone of the Polish government has changed by now targeting the EU institutions as the main “enemy” in this matter.
Additionally, approval ratings of PiS, which is forming the government, have been decreasing. It is becoming obvious that many Poles are not accepting the disposal of the particular rights, the country and its people had long fought for. Occasional demonstrations by EU supporters had been taking place with thousands of people often peacefully marching the streets of the country, mainly in Warsaw, ever since the party took power in 2015. However, another dimension was seen in early October, when hundreds of thousands protested against the plans of changing the laws on abortion, basically making it illegal and punishable. (The PACT commented on this.) The draft law was then withdrawn following pressure created by the public outcry. It was a bitter defeat for the government.
And now, just before the end of the year, another draft law has caused a huge outcry and mobilised thousands across the country to take the streets again. PiS aimed at reforming the media access for journalists to the parliament. The draft intended to restrict access and wanted to establish a selective process, where media outlets were supposed to only be able to send two journalists to the parliament. Furthermore, only a selection of five media channels was supposed to be granted access. Journalists were supposed to be prevented from shooting pictures or sequences inside the plenary hall – which would have barred them from documenting breaches of law, for example in case a Member of Parliament votes for a colleague that is absent (which has been documented to be happening before!). The law also aimed at regulating possibilities of approaching the members by “hosting” journalists in a separate building.
This was the last straw to break the camel’s back – on Friday the tensed atmosphere between opposition and government exploded: The opposition parties blocked the plenary hall as a protest against the planned reform of the media access. Consequently, the government left the hall in order to vote on (and pass) the household for next year – which is being highly criticised and its legality called into question since then. Outside the parliament thousands of demonstrators blocked the exits of the building, causing the politicians to be trapped inside. They kept chanting "Nie oddamy demokracji" – „we are not leaving democracy to you”. Police had to forcefully remove demonstrators in order for the parliamentarians to be able to leave the building.
People however remained in the streets. The protests continued on Saturday and Sunday, with thousands across the country voicing their disapproval towards the planned reforms.
On Monday then the government, following the public pressure, withdrew the reform proposal; stating they would revise the initiatives and present a new version until January 6th.
Meanwhile the European Commission put “Poland” on its agenda on December 21st – discussing further options. It is agreed upon that triggering Article 7 is mostly unlikely to happen as it would require all members to support the motion, and the rightwing-conservative government of Hungary, which also has been criticised for their media restriction reforms, already assured the PiS-government it would not support such actions (fearing similar steps could be taken against them).
Some are now discussing the option of cutting financial support from the European funds, whose main beneficiary is Poland. This, however, would not only hurt the government but also the opposition. The German news magazine Der Spiegel nonetheless reports on some EU politicians and diplomats, who would not mind this kind of “penalty” – to send a message not only in regards to rule of law but also a potential consequence of resisting taking in refugees.
The main interest, however, is still to find a solution together with the Polish government. Meanwhile the opposition and protestors are keeping an eye on the weaknesses of PiS, which have become obvious once again, after yet another enforced withdrawal of a draft law and increasing critique of their policies, leading to some already discussing the potential of new elections. This seems unlikely at the moment, however, the wind blowing through Warsaw’s street (and the Sejm) is whispering “change”, for now quite silently though.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
