Social Europe: Poland’s abortion protests—democratic standards at stake

 The PiS has been in power for five years now. From the outset, these have been turbulent times, marked by diverse protests—by doctors, teachers, farmers, miners and parents of disabled children. The pandemic has only aggravated the public mood, adding to the frustration of the most affected groups, such as micro- and small entrepreneurs, as well as coronavirus-deniers, a movement also germinating in Poland.

Nevertheless, it’s the ideological war which seems to have agitated the society and petrified the political polarisation. The presidential election during the summer was won by Andrzej Duda, candidate of the United Right, by the skin of his teeth. The PiS retains a majority in the Sejm, the lower chamber, thanks only to its two junior coalition partners, while the Senat was lost to the opposition after the parliamentary elections in October 2019. Local governments and cities remain independent and very often in opposition to the central government. [...]

It was in this context that over the summer the LGBT community in Poland became the target of a defamation campaign, which sadly mobilised many and mainstreamed homophobic narratives. It seems the PiS wanted to deliver a pointed response, to prove its ideological ‘purity’—and completely overdid it, putting its own government at existential risk. In so doing, it again tested the boundaries of what remains a young Polish democracy.

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Notes from Poland: “No apologies, no shame”: the rise of Poland’s guerrilla LGBT activists

Various legal efforts have been made by LGBT groups to stop the vans, but have largely been unsuccessful, due to the fact that Poland’s laws against hateful and offensive speech do not cover sexual orientation or gender identity.

Although a court in Gdańsk ordered Fundacja Pro to temporarily stop using some of the slogans it claims are based on “scientific” evidence, another judge in Wrocław rejected a case against the organisation, saying that its activities are “informative”. [...]

Speaking with Notes from Poland shortly before her latest detention, Margot explained what she calls the groups’ “no apologies” approach. They have sought to “throw off the discourse of docility and shame” that she associates with the respectability politics of more moderate members of the LGBT movement. But this radicalism does not exist in a vacuum; it has “adapted to the growth of homophobia”. [...]

For some, the insult to religious feeling was a step too far; others questioned the wisdom of strategies that make LGBT people standout, preferring campaigns that present them as “normal people”. One interviewee said they should be looking for issues that they have in common with religion, such as the idea of love.

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Politico: Time for Brussels to ‘go nuclear’ on Warsaw

It should be obvious by now that PiS won’t back down easily. It is implementing a plan, devised 12 years ago, that sets Poland on the road to a one-party autocracy with the judiciary as its pawn.

The party has attacked the country’s democratic institutions and judiciary since 2005. With fervent, conspiracy-laden rhetoric, PiS blamed the country’s negotiated transition and ex-communist elite for all of Poland’s ills and took concrete steps to rid public life of them. [...]

Between 2005 and 2007, the coalition government led by PiS purged public media and pressured private outlets, under the claim by then Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński that they were owned by “oligarchs.” At the same time, it launched a ferocious lustration campaign against the country’s intellectuals and waged a war on the judiciary. [...]

Such a short-sighted approach is dangerous. Other members and members-in-waiting could feel emboldened by Warsaw’s renegadism, and having rogue countries in the EU’s backyard would pose a danger to the bloc — especially if those rogue countries are geographically close to Russia.

The EU has no choice but to keep pressuring Poland if it wants to prevent the risk of further contagion and the certain demise of the Union as a community of values.

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Politico: The birth of a Polish president

Others in the party vowed to press on over Duda’s opposition and try to override the vetoes, arguing that the proposed legislation had been part of his electoral program. This act of presidential defiance takes Duda probably to the point of no return in the PiS fold, introducing an unexpected element in Polish politics that will play out between now and the next presidential election in three years. [...]

The assault on Duda culminated in a televised primetime statement by Prime Minister Beata Szydło. “The president slowed us down but we won’t surrender and will realize our program,” she said. [...]

PiS’ attitude toward the rule of law might have best been expressed in the words of the veteran anti-communist Kornel Morawiecki, who in an address to parliament said: “The law is an important thing, but the law is not a sanctity. Above the law is the good of the nation.” To a lengthy standing ovation from PiS deputies, he said: “If the law interferes in this good, we cannot consider it as something which cannot be breached and changed.” [...]

This may be an indication that Duda’s actions were motivated by his rivalry with Ziobro. The president was not consulted or informed before the law targeting the Supreme Court was introduced in parliament, and had later called for changes to the law regarding the National Judiciary Council.

His behavior also betrayed anger that the legislation gave the justice minister the sole authority to decide which Supreme Court judges would be allowed to stay. PiS proposed a compromise amendment, giving him the power to nominate judges that had been previously selected for him by Ziobro. But evidently, it was not enough.

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