Fascinating Polish Politics (actually making international news!)

So if you've been paying attention to the news out of Europe over the past couple of months, you may have noticed more attention being given to the political climate in Poland, and for good reason. In September the Polish parliamentary elections resulted in a sweeping victory for Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice), colloquially known as PiS (pronounced like PEACE). PiS is Poland's national conservative party, and last held a majority from 2005-2007. It now holds the largest plurality in both houses of Parliament, as well as the position of Prime Minister and President.

Prime Minister Beata Szydło (PiS) and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski

The victory of the national conservative PiS is largely the result of Poles tiring of the incumbent liberal democratic party, despite the fact that Poland's economy is doing very well (the only EU state not greatly affected by the 2008 recession) and the country has become much more important on the international stage in recent years, especially being so close to Russia.

The biggest news so far following the election has been the public demonstrations in Warsaw. Last Saturday, 50,000 Poles marched in demonstration against the policies of PiS, and on Sunday another 30,000 marched in favor of PiS. So what has caused all of this activity?

In political terms, PiS is pushing what many have called an illiberal democracy, similar to what has already happened in Hungary. This means that while democratic process is still the method of choosing the government, the elected party nevertheless pushes for a restriction of certain liberties, such as freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. For example, since being elected to a majority, PiS has started censoring certain artistic productions (claiming that a play was "pornographic") and threatened to limit the publication of certain newspapers. The biggest affront has been that PiS has (perhaps illegally) denied the appointment of liberal supreme court justices, and instead tried to replace them with conservative justices who would uphold PiS's policy changes. PiS's policies have also been seen as violently anti-refugee and somewhat xenophobic, causing backlash against both Muslims and Jews.

None of this is to say that Poland has become dangerous or violent or extreme or anything of the sort. Our daily lives and the daily lives of most have not changed a bit. And the demonstrations last weekend prove that the population is aware of these changes and is willing to stand up and fight for their liberal democracy. It should be noted that the last time PiS was in the majority (beginning in 2005), popular protest forced them to call early elections and they were subsequently ousted from the majority. So it will be very interesting to see how this situation unfolds, and whether Poland's relationships with the US or the EU change at all, and just what the Polish people will do about it.

We'll keep you posted, of course!