Poland
Polish Government Of Threats And Extremes
In the run up to the Polish Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the Polish political party PIS made many very expensive promises. But since the elections, rather than delivering on these promises, the government has been engaged in a battle to stay in power and has not delivered on the promises. Aside from passing a budget and winning concessions from the EU, it has done little of substance on delivering on its pre-election promises.
The Kaczynski brothers, one who is now President of Poland and the other the leader of the Polish political party PIS, who were once described by former Polish President Lech Walesa as little more than troublemakers, seem to be confirming his assessment of them. Their government has taken on the tone of confrontation and is maintaining its fragile grip on power through threats.
PIS, in a minority position in the Polish parliament, has had to resort to forming an unconventional alliance with two extreme minority parties whose support, as shown by numerous polls, has dropped significantly since the election. PIS has used this drop in support as a mechanism of threat against the two minority parties. Should they not support PIS, PIS will cause new elections to be held and the two parties will lose seats in the Parliament. It was just such a threat that forced the two minority parties to give PIS their initial support.
As for PIS itself, soon after elections it shelved plans for tax cuts and for building housing. It launched on a program of spending on social programs like increasing maternity leave and giving money to new parents. These programs helped PIS maintain its position in the polls while it, rightly or wrongly, started battles with many different groups.
The most problematic battle that PIS seems to have now is the battle it has with the two minority parties, LPR and Samoobrona, that are signatories to what is called the Stabilization Pact, the document that defines how the three signatories will cooperate in running the government.
Kaczynski (both of them) has taken the position that the Kaczynski opinion is the only correct opinion. As stated by Jacek Zakowski, columnist for Polityka weekly,“The Kaczynski brothers are ignoring social and economic trends, just as their predecessors neglected society and the state”.
In their implementation of the Stabilization pact they have expected that the other signatories do little more than act like children and be quite and do what they are told.
But Samoobrona and LPR are not parties of children and they are fighting back publicly. And the public complaints are having an effect. Jaroslaw Kaczynski has refused to meet with either the Leader of Samoobrona or LPR. He explains his reason for not meeting the LPR as follows:
' Mr. Giertych states we are at war with his party, though it is the League which is attacking us constantly. If, contrary to obvious facts, Mr. Giertych claims we are picking on the media and not the other way round, then I really don't know what we are to talk about. If he wants to meet with me, he would first have to change his opinions quite substantially.'
And to make his point more firmly, Jaroslaw Kaczynski has once again threatened early elections if the parties do not heel to his command.
While Kaczynski has been running the government from his position of party leader, the government seems to be declining in popularity. A recent poll shows that the leading opposition party is gaining in the polls while PIS has dropped to second place.
The prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz on the other hand has had his own very effective PR machine and his popularity ratings are growing. It is also rumored that there are some serious disagreements between Marcinkiewicz and Kaczynski. With his poll ratings up, Macinkiewicz is said to be acting more independently.
Add to it that the Finance Minister has opined that the Government cannot afford to spend the money needed to fund the Government handout programs promised by Marcinkiewicz and one has a serious three way PIS internal battle as well. She is said to have said that she will present some proposals that she expects to be adopted or she will leave the government.
Threats and counter threats concerning extreme positions dominate the scene. Today, the threat of the day, again, is new elections if PIS does not get its way.
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