Politics in Poland

After the most political of days in the United States, I'd like to talk about some of the pressing issues here in Poland. If you thought the United States had a monopoly in political nastiness, think again. I've heard some things on Polish TV that are probably nastier, and some things that are considered mostly harmless fun in the States are blown into epic proportions over here.

Part of the reason politics is so nasty in Poland, as far as I can tell, is that the political parties really aren't all that different. The ruling party, Platforma Obywatelska (Civic Platform, henceforth PO) is described as a center-right party that favors a minimalist government. The opposition, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice, henceforth PiS), favors a strong but limited government. PO is generally Pro-EU, PiS is more Eurosceptic. PO is a bit more liberal on social issues, but as far as I can tell economically the parties are not that different. Generally, the main political players in this country represent roughly the two wings of the Republican Party. Granted, this covers a lot of ground, but as far as I can tell the major parties really aren't especially different. I've also heard that there is a tendency for the opposition to oppose something, and then once they are in government continue doing the same things they railed against.

Now, some of the smaller parties are a bit different. There's the Ruch Palikota (Palikot's Movement, henceforth RP), which is kind of like a more serious version of the Rent is Too Damn High Party, and is named after its leader Palikot, a comedian (that's not being used pejoratively, that's his real job). There's the Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Polish People's Party or PSL), which I thought was a Communist party based on the name, but it isn't. They're a weird hybrid of social conservative and economical Social Democrats. Hence, centrists. There's the Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (Union of the Democratic Left or SLD), which generally represents the left wing. Finally, there's Solidarna Polska (United Poland or SP), which is, in short, the Pat Buchanan Party. There are a bunch of other parties running around out there, but I think these six are the only ones with representation in Parliament.

I haven't been up on all the latest political issues, and I know that some of them are rather large like abortion. There's actually a movement on to pretty much ban it here unless the mother is going to die without it, and I understand that it is already only possible to obtain an abortion in Poland in cases of rape, incest, and when the health of the mother is in danger. Considering that 90+% of the country is Catholic, this is less surprising. However, I don't know a lot about this issue, so I'll move on to something I've been hearing a lot about recently, namely the tragedy in Smolensk.

On April 10th, 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft carrying Polish president Lech Kacziński, his wife, the Chief of the General Staff, a bunch of other generals, the president of the national bank and other assorted dignitaries crashed en route to a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Katyn massacre in Smolensk. This was potentially a big deal diplomatically: the Russian president was also going to be at the commemoration, which served as an acknowledgement of the fact that the Soviet government committed the massacre. Unfortunately, what happened has seriously damaged Polish-Russian relations, which haven't been very good since, oh I don't know, about 1500 or so. There was a heavy fog in Smolensk that day, and the pilot probably should not have tried to land in it. The plane crashed, killing all 96 aboard and effectively decimating the Polish government. Since then there have been all kinds of unanswered questions, the one most important in my mind being: why the hell were all those important people on one plane? But there are all kinds of questions that are more pressing from a political standpoint.

First, a lot of Poles are convinced that this tragedy represented some kind of tricky business. I've firmly added the word "zamach" (which based on the contexts in which it's been used I translate as "conspiracy" but the dictionary says "assassination") to my vocabulary, as I'm hearing a lot of it. It didn't help that the Russians largely handled the investigation and didn't let the Poles oversee a lot of things. The Russians also didn't return the black boxes promptly, and when they were returned, chunks of the tape were blank. When the plane was returned, it had been cleaned by the Russians, and it didn't help that the initial Russian explanation for the accident was "uh, we don't know. Maybe the pilot was drunk. Or a Polish general was drunk and ordered the pilots to land stupidly." Finally, it doesn't help that Poles tend not to trust Russians in the first place, the same way, say, Koreans don't trust the Japanese.

The Polish government did not immediately demand an international commission to investigate the crash, which was probably a mistake as the issue remains unburied. There is thus an incentive for the opposition to politicize this tragedy as much as possible, as the governing party looks bad. PO looks bad whether there was foul play or not, as it turns out that some of the bodies were mixed up and buried in the wrong place. Does that mean we should disinter all of the bodies, including those buried in Wawel Cathedral?

The reason that this is such an issue right now is that a prominent Polish daily, Rzeczpospolita ("Republic") published an article that said that Polish investigators had tested components of the plane and found some residue that might, maybe, have been from explosives possibly. The language used was something along the lines of "we cannot eliminate the possibility that there may have been explosives" though even the article itself said that most likely, there were no explosives. The headline was a lot more inflammatory, but the article itself really didn't say much. This did not prevent the leader of the opposition from running out and immediately saying that this represented proof that 96 people including his twin brother had been murdered, and that the government should be ashamed for standing in the way of finding out the truth.

"Rz" backed down from its earlier article, and the journalist responsible for it has been fired. I think the editor-in-chief also went, as did some other important figure.

This touched off extremely contentious debate, and I saw several talk shows where PiS largely accused the government (PO) of covering things up and bending over backwards to not irritate the Russians. PO for its part has largely said that PiS is taking advantage of the fresh graves of the dead. The other parties, for their parts, mostly beat up on PiS with a few swipes at PO. "Rz" has also taken a beating, with some suggesting that it became merely a shill for the conservative opposition. Since the changes in personnel over at the newspaper, there is now another debate: did the government lean on the paper at all? Was there some kind of repression of freedom of speech and the press? Was it irresponsible to have published that article in the first place?  Is the country in danger of shaking itself apart, when one side believes that the others aided and abetted an assassination?

At any rate, about 33% of Poles are convinced that this crash represented a Russian plot. Basically, if 33% of America was convinced that 9/11 was an inside job done by the government, you can well imagine that our political discourse would be an awful lot nastier than it is today. Thatt might not be the best analogy as it was obvious that 9/11 was a plot by SOMEBODY at least. Here the official explanation is that this was just a tragic accident. 

There's an interesting dynamic in the panel discussions I've heard about the Smolensk tragedy. Generally, PO and PiS shoot it out, as is to be expected with something like this. But, the members of the minor parties generally snipe at both PO and PiS, PO for botching the investigation and PiS for making a big deal about it for political points. Occasionally, you'll see the PiS and PO panelists actually unite and try to slap down the members of the other parties. What's interesting is that since the fall of Communism the system of political parties has been extremely unstable. The SLD used to be the governing party, and is now a fairly minor one. Both PO and PiS are only about 8 years old. A lot of other parties such as Solidarity Electoral Action have enjoyed brief success, had schisms, and then fallen apart. So I sense that part of this defensiveness is an attempt by both parties to stay where they are, because parties on top don't tend to stay on top. That said, it is remarkable how many old politicians are in these "new" parties.

I have heard complaints from a number of Poles that despite the fact that 6 parties are in the Parliament, they don't feel like anybody really represents them. Some feel that the parties are just a way of personally aggrandizing particular politicians, and that politicians are ultimately all flip-floppers to the point where it seems like Orrin Hatch comes out in support of gay marriage and Charles Schumer comes out in favor of mandatory concealed carry, all in order to get elected. And the parties that act or think differently are dismissed as just doing so to distinguish themselves and gain votes. Granted, I have a limited sample, but I would say that this gives the lie to the "third parties would solve all our partisanship problems" ideas we hear floating around in the States from time to time. If anything, Poland could probably do with fewer parties with clearer ideological differences: the two largest parties are hard to distinguish, and the distinguishable parties are hardly influential.

Another common complaint I have heard is that politics is still very much dominated by the same old farts who were in charge when Poland was still communist. I don't know how true this is, except that I did see a Polish supreme court justice at the Ambassador's reception in Warsaw, and it was surprising to me how this high official in post-Communist Poland turned out to be an equally high official before 1989. Anecdotal evidence, of course, but it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch considering that Poland never passed something that disqualified Communist officials from holding political office. This does make me wonder if that was part of some deal that Solidarity and the PRL government worked out in 1989. If so, it does seem like a small price to pay.

I'm hoping to get a chance to talk with some people more about what Poland was like and how it has changed these last 20 years. The trick is, I need to find someone at least 40 years old to have this conversation with.....