Election sausages. The outcome of the parliamentary elections in Poland
On Sunday in Poland, elections were held in the Sejm and Senate of the country. According to their results, the ruling right-wing conservative party “Law and Justice” (PiS) gained 43,59% of the vote. (This is the highest percentage received in one election for the entire post-socialist time in Poland, since 1989.) Now PiS secured 235 deputy seats from 460 in the lower house (in the Senate, it will get 48 seats from 100) and will again form its own government .
Sensation did not happen. A similar result was expected. Even during the election campaign in the European Commission, annoyed by the obvious pro-American course of Warsaw and its "departure from European values", it was predicted that the election outcome will be decided by the "election sausages" of the PiS-controlled government, generously distributed to the Poles.
It should be noted that these "sausages" have been distributed over the past four years. At the expense of its funds and European subsidies, the government decently invested in social programs. The most noticeable step in this series for the Poles was to increase children's allowances. They were raised to about 117 euros, so taking into account the purchasing power of the population, the size of the Polish child allowance exceeded the Swedish allowance.
Moreover, it was decided to pay benefits not only for the second, but also for the first child. For the budget of a young family (the average salary in Poland in euros is less than a thousand), this has become serious support. Pleased with the youth and the abolition of income tax for people under the age of 26 years. However, this option can be attributed to the category of pre-election, since it began to operate only this August.
A strong government decision affecting most of Polish society was to reduce the retirement age from 67 to 65 for men and to 60 for women. Not without new campaign promises. The PiS program announced additional payments to pensioners, new benefits for small businesses and farmers, large investments in infrastructure, medicine, etc.
All this together deprived the opposition of a chance for a good result. Their authoritative leaders called out to the Poles in vain, indicating that right-wing conservatives from PiS were dismantling the “democratic freedoms conquered by Poland”. The appeal of the former presidents of the country, Lech Walesa, Alexander Kwasniewski and Bronislaw Komorowski, is especially noteworthy here.
“On October 13, we are facing an unusual election: they will decide whether Poland will remain a democratic state of law or continue to turn into an authoritarian dictatorship,” the ex-presidents wrote in their open letter to the nation. But the Polish voter preferred "sausage", and it is unlikely that he can be condemned for this.
The fact is that against the mentioned “sausage” the democratic forces of Poland once again moved to the masses “European values”, which are already pretty toxic in this Catholic country. So, a lot of discussion has developed around the rights to abortion and the rights of sexual minorities. Democrats promised gay marriages, adoption of children by same-sex couples, but, as we see, did not find support in Polish society.
By the way, this topic was not very worried for European leaders. Their attention focused on the other. Poland, having risen on the economic support of the European Union, was transformed and filled with long-standing dreams of power and influence, at least - regionally. Warsaw began to try on the role of the East European leader and remembered the smell of mothballs project “Poland from sea to sea” (Polska od morza do morza).
Nostalgic for the Middle Ages, when the borders of the Federation of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the Polish elite now periodically fills its ideology with the memory of those times. Today, for example, a new reincarnation of a long-standing idea, formulated in the Three Seas Initiative project, is in progress. She was born in 2016 in the heads of the leaders of the Law and Justice party that came to power in Warsaw.
This time they waved to the "Trimorye" and included in their geopolitical orbit, in addition to the Baltic and Black Seas, the Adriatic coast. The first summit of states interested in implementing a new project was held there in Croatian Dubrovnik in August 2016. Polish President Andrzej Duda formulated his goal as “Strengthening Europe: Connecting the North and the South”.
Representatives of Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Turkey, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania were invited to the summit. Note that most of the participants in the event are members of the European Union. The others, to one degree or another, declare their desire to join this community. In Brussels, they tensed up when they saw in Warsaw's initiative the threat of creating a kind of mini EU built on Polish patterns.
Since then, the project has been overgrown with new ideas (to lay a gas pipeline from North to South of Eastern Europe, to revive the river route from Polish Gdansk to Ukrainian Kherson, etc.), but has not advanced far. Affects the lack of necessary funds and resistance to Polish innovations by Brussels officials.
Be that as it may, the Polish elite felt the drive of regional leadership and began to bully Old Europe without hesitation. For example, from Germany, which invested tens of billions of euros in Poland in the new century, Warsaw demanded reparations for the losses suffered during the Second World War. (The Poles valued them at $ 900 billion.)
The Polish authorities refused to accommodate migrants on their territory to Brussels itself, challenged the election of Donald Tusk as chairman of the European Council, blocked the decision of the European Commission to increase the transmission of Russian gas through the OPAL gas pipeline. This summer, at the height of the economic confrontation between the European Union and the United States, the Polish Foreign Ministry openly sided with Washington. Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Chaputovic made a public statement (it was duplicated by TVN24), in which he noted that "European countries should always take into account the opinion of the United States," since the weakened EU cannot independently "resist the challenges of Russia, China and Iran ".
In short, the formerly accommodating Poland under the rule of the right-wing conservative PiS has become a headache for European officials and leaders of the Old World. They snarl, blame Warsaw for moving away from democracy and "European values." Although they are more concerned about the attempts of the Poles to dictate their political agenda to Europe, to directly influence the adoption of all decisions that are most important for the EU. That is, to become on a par with the countries that determine the strategy of the European Union.
It cannot be said that Poland manages to “break Europe”. Warsaw from the confrontation with Brussels also incurs costs. For example, in the Ukrainian direction. Here, Poland’s appetites are greatest: from compensation for lost property in the so-called “Eastern Chairs” to restoration of the country within the 1939 of the year. The Poles even began to publish maps on which they included in their territory the western regions of Ukraine (Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and Ternopol).
In Brussels and Berlin, they realized that Poland would be larger than the current “locomotive of the EU” - Germany within the new borders, and cut Warsaw off from participating in the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis. This hit hard on the Poles' pride (and at the same time demonstrated to the Eastern Europeans the real political weight of Warsaw), but they had to put up with it.
Still, Brussels failed to wipe PiS from the real power in Poland. (The Council of Europe Chairman Donald Tusk was especially active in this, openly campaigning for Polish liberals.) Now the EU is explaining its failure by “election sausages” of the conservative government. But the fact remains: in the next four years Warsaw will remain under the rule of right-wing conservative nationalist forces, and this fact will not add unity to the European Union ...
Predicted result
Sensation did not happen. A similar result was expected. Even during the election campaign in the European Commission, annoyed by the obvious pro-American course of Warsaw and its "departure from European values", it was predicted that the election outcome will be decided by the "election sausages" of the PiS-controlled government, generously distributed to the Poles.
It should be noted that these "sausages" have been distributed over the past four years. At the expense of its funds and European subsidies, the government decently invested in social programs. The most noticeable step in this series for the Poles was to increase children's allowances. They were raised to about 117 euros, so taking into account the purchasing power of the population, the size of the Polish child allowance exceeded the Swedish allowance.
Moreover, it was decided to pay benefits not only for the second, but also for the first child. For the budget of a young family (the average salary in Poland in euros is less than a thousand), this has become serious support. Pleased with the youth and the abolition of income tax for people under the age of 26 years. However, this option can be attributed to the category of pre-election, since it began to operate only this August.
A strong government decision affecting most of Polish society was to reduce the retirement age from 67 to 65 for men and to 60 for women. Not without new campaign promises. The PiS program announced additional payments to pensioners, new benefits for small businesses and farmers, large investments in infrastructure, medicine, etc.
All this together deprived the opposition of a chance for a good result. Their authoritative leaders called out to the Poles in vain, indicating that right-wing conservatives from PiS were dismantling the “democratic freedoms conquered by Poland”. The appeal of the former presidents of the country, Lech Walesa, Alexander Kwasniewski and Bronislaw Komorowski, is especially noteworthy here.
“On October 13, we are facing an unusual election: they will decide whether Poland will remain a democratic state of law or continue to turn into an authoritarian dictatorship,” the ex-presidents wrote in their open letter to the nation. But the Polish voter preferred "sausage", and it is unlikely that he can be condemned for this.
Poland in European geopolitics
The fact is that against the mentioned “sausage” the democratic forces of Poland once again moved to the masses “European values”, which are already pretty toxic in this Catholic country. So, a lot of discussion has developed around the rights to abortion and the rights of sexual minorities. Democrats promised gay marriages, adoption of children by same-sex couples, but, as we see, did not find support in Polish society.
By the way, this topic was not very worried for European leaders. Their attention focused on the other. Poland, having risen on the economic support of the European Union, was transformed and filled with long-standing dreams of power and influence, at least - regionally. Warsaw began to try on the role of the East European leader and remembered the smell of mothballs project “Poland from sea to sea” (Polska od morza do morza).
Nostalgic for the Middle Ages, when the borders of the Federation of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the Polish elite now periodically fills its ideology with the memory of those times. Today, for example, a new reincarnation of a long-standing idea, formulated in the Three Seas Initiative project, is in progress. She was born in 2016 in the heads of the leaders of the Law and Justice party that came to power in Warsaw.
This time they waved to the "Trimorye" and included in their geopolitical orbit, in addition to the Baltic and Black Seas, the Adriatic coast. The first summit of states interested in implementing a new project was held there in Croatian Dubrovnik in August 2016. Polish President Andrzej Duda formulated his goal as “Strengthening Europe: Connecting the North and the South”.
Representatives of Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Turkey, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania were invited to the summit. Note that most of the participants in the event are members of the European Union. The others, to one degree or another, declare their desire to join this community. In Brussels, they tensed up when they saw in Warsaw's initiative the threat of creating a kind of mini EU built on Polish patterns.
Since then, the project has been overgrown with new ideas (to lay a gas pipeline from North to South of Eastern Europe, to revive the river route from Polish Gdansk to Ukrainian Kherson, etc.), but has not advanced far. Affects the lack of necessary funds and resistance to Polish innovations by Brussels officials.
"Oriental armchairs" remained in dreams
Be that as it may, the Polish elite felt the drive of regional leadership and began to bully Old Europe without hesitation. For example, from Germany, which invested tens of billions of euros in Poland in the new century, Warsaw demanded reparations for the losses suffered during the Second World War. (The Poles valued them at $ 900 billion.)
The Polish authorities refused to accommodate migrants on their territory to Brussels itself, challenged the election of Donald Tusk as chairman of the European Council, blocked the decision of the European Commission to increase the transmission of Russian gas through the OPAL gas pipeline. This summer, at the height of the economic confrontation between the European Union and the United States, the Polish Foreign Ministry openly sided with Washington. Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Chaputovic made a public statement (it was duplicated by TVN24), in which he noted that "European countries should always take into account the opinion of the United States," since the weakened EU cannot independently "resist the challenges of Russia, China and Iran ".
In short, the formerly accommodating Poland under the rule of the right-wing conservative PiS has become a headache for European officials and leaders of the Old World. They snarl, blame Warsaw for moving away from democracy and "European values." Although they are more concerned about the attempts of the Poles to dictate their political agenda to Europe, to directly influence the adoption of all decisions that are most important for the EU. That is, to become on a par with the countries that determine the strategy of the European Union.
It cannot be said that Poland manages to “break Europe”. Warsaw from the confrontation with Brussels also incurs costs. For example, in the Ukrainian direction. Here, Poland’s appetites are greatest: from compensation for lost property in the so-called “Eastern Chairs” to restoration of the country within the 1939 of the year. The Poles even began to publish maps on which they included in their territory the western regions of Ukraine (Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and Ternopol).
In Brussels and Berlin, they realized that Poland would be larger than the current “locomotive of the EU” - Germany within the new borders, and cut Warsaw off from participating in the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis. This hit hard on the Poles' pride (and at the same time demonstrated to the Eastern Europeans the real political weight of Warsaw), but they had to put up with it.
Still, Brussels failed to wipe PiS from the real power in Poland. (The Council of Europe Chairman Donald Tusk was especially active in this, openly campaigning for Polish liberals.) Now the EU is explaining its failure by “election sausages” of the conservative government. But the fact remains: in the next four years Warsaw will remain under the rule of right-wing conservative nationalist forces, and this fact will not add unity to the European Union ...
Information