I have been busy recently and I haven’t had a chance to write anything new, however since I last posted an election has taken place in Poland. The election was called because the ruling party, Law and Justice Party (PiS), fell out with their coalition partners (the League of Polish Families and the Self Defence Party). So an election was called for the parliament (Poland has presidential and parliamentary elections) only two years after the last election. Going into the election, prime minister Lech Kaczynski was aiming for re-election (Kaczynski’s twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski is the President). The main rival to Kaczynski was the leader of the opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), Donald Tusk. Being an English teacher I basically get paid to have conversations with people. Therefore in the run up to the election I was quizzing anyone who was willing to talk about it on their views on Polish politics and their preferences for the election.
One thing was clear, the ruling party and the Kaczynski’s in particular, were not popular in Krakow. That is not really surprising in itself because Krakow voted for PO at the previous election and PiS get most of their votes from the more conservative, rural and possibly less educated Eastern part of Poland. What was surprising though was not no-one would admit, at least publicly, supporting PiS. At the same time though, no-one could really tell you the difference ideologically between PO and PiS. Both parties are catholic, centre right parties. It seems PO is perhaps more EU friendly that PiS but that wasn’t really bothering most people. It seems then that the main difference was personality, that of Kaczysnki vs Tusk. To be honest I think most Krakowians were embarrassed by Kaczysnki, who is not the most diplomatic nor articulate of politicians.
Another thing was also clear and that is that Polish people are generally apathetic about politics. Many people I spoke to thought that nothing would change, regardless of who won the election. Others said that none of the candidates inspired them and that in fact they would be voting against someone (almost always Kaczynski) as opposed to voting for someone. This apathy was reflected in a relatively low turnout which prompted one of Poland main newspapers to leave half of its front page blank in protest and prompted Lech Walesa to complain that Poles were wasting the opportunity he and others fought to win.
When the election day finally came, a Sunday (Polish elections are always held on Sunday’s), I went along to a polling station with one eager voter, who in fact was not voting for either of the big two but for one of the new smaller parties representing women’s rights. What I can tell you about voting in Poland is basically that it is the same as voting in Scotland. You go along to the local school, receive your paper, make your selection and place into a big box in the middle of the room. Nothing unusual there then. Well accept that they don't loose 100,000 or so ballots by mistake.
When the elections result finally came in, turnout (all be it still relatively low) was higher than expected and PO had won the election and will now form the next government of Poland, all be it in coalition with someone. This raises several interesting points. Who will PO form a coalition with and how long will it last? How will the PO government and the President (Jaroslaw Kaczynski from PiS) get on? And the question most people want to know, how will things change? We will just need to wait and see but at least most Krakowians are happier now that they are one Kaczysnki lighter.
One thing was clear, the ruling party and the Kaczynski’s in particular, were not popular in Krakow. That is not really surprising in itself because Krakow voted for PO at the previous election and PiS get most of their votes from the more conservative, rural and possibly less educated Eastern part of Poland. What was surprising though was not no-one would admit, at least publicly, supporting PiS. At the same time though, no-one could really tell you the difference ideologically between PO and PiS. Both parties are catholic, centre right parties. It seems PO is perhaps more EU friendly that PiS but that wasn’t really bothering most people. It seems then that the main difference was personality, that of Kaczysnki vs Tusk. To be honest I think most Krakowians were embarrassed by Kaczysnki, who is not the most diplomatic nor articulate of politicians.
Another thing was also clear and that is that Polish people are generally apathetic about politics. Many people I spoke to thought that nothing would change, regardless of who won the election. Others said that none of the candidates inspired them and that in fact they would be voting against someone (almost always Kaczynski) as opposed to voting for someone. This apathy was reflected in a relatively low turnout which prompted one of Poland main newspapers to leave half of its front page blank in protest and prompted Lech Walesa to complain that Poles were wasting the opportunity he and others fought to win.
When the election day finally came, a Sunday (Polish elections are always held on Sunday’s), I went along to a polling station with one eager voter, who in fact was not voting for either of the big two but for one of the new smaller parties representing women’s rights. What I can tell you about voting in Poland is basically that it is the same as voting in Scotland. You go along to the local school, receive your paper, make your selection and place into a big box in the middle of the room. Nothing unusual there then. Well accept that they don't loose 100,000 or so ballots by mistake.
When the elections result finally came in, turnout (all be it still relatively low) was higher than expected and PO had won the election and will now form the next government of Poland, all be it in coalition with someone. This raises several interesting points. Who will PO form a coalition with and how long will it last? How will the PO government and the President (Jaroslaw Kaczynski from PiS) get on? And the question most people want to know, how will things change? We will just need to wait and see but at least most Krakowians are happier now that they are one Kaczysnki lighter.
1 comment:
very nice blog! :) but please, correct one mistake in this note - the President of Poland is Lech (not Jaroslaw) Kaczynski. all the best, Agata :)
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