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Poland has just elected its new parliament. There are three things that should be noticed. Firstly, the governing party 'Civic Platform' won its second parliamentary election in row. This has not been achieved by any party in the short history of post-communist Poland and so is worthy of note. The new government should be formed by the same parties i.e. the Civic Platform (39%) and Polish People’s Party (8%). Secondly, the relatively bad result of the Democratic Left Alliance which received only 8% of the votes despite being predicted about 12-15% and were tipped to become an essential part of the new governing coalition. Thirdly, the seemingly stable 4-party political configuration has been ruined by Palikot’s Support Movement, a populist party that got 10% of votes and came third overall. Law and Justice (30%) remained the main opposition party.
It is true that the election turnout was rather low. Only about 49% of voters decided to take part in the election. Nevertheless, such a low result is typical for Polish parliamentary elections. Once again Poles proved the social scientists’ theory that they turn out for civil duties more eagerly during the presidential and local elections. But then the election campaign was irritating. It seemed that the candidates were more interested in testing the voter's resistance to ascetics or challenging their intellectual abilities than encouraging them to vote the 'right' way. Let me give you a small image of the Polish campaign. Don’t worry if you cannot speak Polish – you’ll get the same amount of priceless information as any other Polish voter! So here you have a young Polish leftist’s campaign clip or its political friend’s one, soft pornography! But there were also some really touching moments were available, some thrillers and something for family cinema’s fans, too.
But you do not have to be a prophet to guess that the politics in Poland isn’t all about making terrible films. There are certain issues that which should be discussed. Moreover some of them, if not the majority – are related with the EU.
More about these issues later this week, only in Under Eastern Eyes!
I just got back from the Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit, held in Warsaw, 29-30 September. Even though a few months ago I made some critical points on the project's realisation, my first impression of the gathering is really positive, especially when it comes to the conference that proceeded the actual high profile political meetings and decisions.
"The Eastern Partnership conference: towards a European community of democracy, prosperity and a stronger civil society" was the topic of the all-day discussions organised by the Polish Institute of International Affairs, The Centre of Eastern Studies and The EaP Civil Society Forum (CSF). The combination of conferences and workshops attended by politicians, civil activists, independent political analysts, as well as strategists either from the EU and EaP countries, is a traditional component of EaP summits (a similar debate took place in the Czech Republic, a day before the Prague Declaration that launched the EaP project in 2009).
I’m not sure whether the phrase “pospolite ruszenie” could be translated into any foreign language (though it’s difficult to explain it even in modern Polish, too). “Mass movement”, “mass uprising” of course are close but still without the connotations of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth - the old Rzeczpospolita’s political culture - the term cannot be clearly understood, I suppose.
Anyway, as the esteemed Romans used to say, pleating their togas’ folds “exempla trahunt” – examples educate. In the second half of June, two young Polish artists L.U.C and Sokół began the first official Pospolite Ruszenie in Poland since the fall of the old Rzeczpospolita. Its aim is to defeat the ugliness of post-communist public space i.e. the gloomy, socialist realist housing estates and kitsch motley tower blocks and then regain that space from post-soviet indifference and passivity.
EU plus or minus part II : Currency and economy Franco-German duumvirate
Written by Ziemowit JóźwikAs I tried to point out in my previous post, the Eastern attitude to the Libyan Intervention was rather tepid. The East preferred to stay with generous EU budget contributor Germany and did not succumb to the Franco-British persuasion of "the necessary, legal and right intervention". The Polish prime minister stated "Not all of the arguments were convincing", underlining the ambiguity associated with the fact that the Franco-British coalition (or Western Europe in general) caught sight of Gaddafi's specific approach to human rights only when the Arab Spring started to flourish in the oil-bearing territories.
Conversely to the Libyan case in which the Eastern choice was rather simple, if not comfortable, reminiscent of a cozy German milieu, the implementation of the new European Stability Mechanism and especially the Euro Plus Pact disturbed this almost idyllic image.
First of all, let's sum up some basic facts. The Euro Plus Pact aka the 'Euro Pact' aka 'Competitiveness Pact' is the Franco-German, ad hoc target coalition initiative to rescue the euro from the economic crisis or as some claim, the original sin of extending "a common market and currency without a common government".
More...
Free Andrzej Poczobut! – sign an appeal to the Europe’s last dictator
Written by Ziemowit JóźwikSome time ago on this blog I talked about the dramatic situation of Belarusian journalists and dissidents who were protesting against the falsified presidential election. Unfortunately it's hard to say that events are getting better now, 4 months after Lukashenka’s triumph.
One story is of Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian independent journalist, blogger and correspondent of the Polish press. On April 6th when he was going to participate in a TV link-up conference with the deputies from the EU-Belarus European Parliament Group, he was detained by the Belarusian KGB and charged with 'insulting the president'. Just after the imprisonment Andrzej's house was raided by the KGB and his wife was interrogated for many hours.
EU plus or minus part I : Security and defense Franco-British duumvirate
Written by Ziemowit JóźwikSome claim that progress in the European integration process is related to the crises that the EU has to deal with. Thus, in a period when we can probably say to be experiencing a lot of deficiencies, and certainly no lack of crises, we should perhaps expect some EU "concrete achievements" to follow. The recent European Council summit held on the 24/25th of March might give us some ideas.
Even though the so-called "euro-crisis" and the situation in North Africa, particularly the intervention in Libya, are largely incomparable cases, in terms of the EU response – at least one similarity can be found. The main, let's say 'tough' EU actions have not been made by the common institutions (i.e. the EU Commission), who have confined themselves to vague declarations of condemnation or support, but by 'ad hoc target-coalitions' of member states. In Libya's case we've seen a sovereign initiative by the UK and France, similar to France and Germany who took responsibility for rescuing the euro.
On February 10th the European Parliament decided to organise the first session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly for March. Finally, after almost two years after the Eastern Partnership inauguration in Prague, the idea of a joint meeting of 120 deputies, half of whom come from the EP and from the six countries participating in the project may become a reality. The aim of the Euronest is to create a multilateral framework for dialogue that should bring the Eastern Partnership member states closer and try to "tear down" the growing Schengen Wall between them and the EU.
Nevertheless, the fact that it took two years to call the first session of the Euronest is more a sign of the EU's awkwardness in the East than a symbol of some spectacular breakthrough. Of course, it is to the EU's credit but it also still looks like the EU has problems carrying out some of the more ambitious external projects of a supranational community.
"The European Union holds the keys that could free the Belarusian demonstrators from prison." These were the words that ended Eva Nyaklyaeva's speech in the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee debate on the latest Belarusian election on January 12th.
Eva Neklyaeva, currently living in Finland, is a daughter of the jailed presidential candidate Vladimir Neklyaev, who was lucky to be alive after being severally beaten by Specnaz troops. Vladimir Neklyaev is one of about 700 Belarusians who have been imprisoned because of "destruction and barbarism" as President Lukashenko said after a mass demonstration of about 40 thousand participants which took place in Minsk after the announcement of the election results. According to Lukashenko, he "authoritatively" had to "end the destabilising wars in the country". That was not just an empty promise. All across Belarus activists, journalists are visited and harassed by the KGB. To sum up, the situation of people who are not placing themselves in the fictional 80% majority who agreed for the 4th term of Lukashenko, is not to be envied.
It was not only the Belarusian democratic opposition who lost the last election. The EU strategy towards the last European dictator also failed. Throughout the whole of Lukashenko's reign since 1994, the EU has tried different methods to deal or cooperate with Minsk. There were better (1999-2000, 2008-10) and worse (1997-99, 2002-04, 2005-08) periods but in general Lukashenko has been playing with the eurocrats as well as with the divided Belarusian opposition.
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