Old Poland
Polish People To Choose Between New And Old Poland
Warsaw, Poland 10 October, 2007 The results of the forthcoming Polish elections will depend on the number of young people who go to the polls. Their numbers will decide whether the attitudes of the rural voters dominate or if Poland takes a more modern approach to the world around it.
Poland has very modern cities, but nearly 40 percent of Poland's 38 million people live in rural areas. There are over 2 million farms and they average under nine hectares; less than a quarter of the size in France.
Rural Poland is a land of those left behind in the economic transition that has driven Poland since the downfall of the Communists. Not having fully participated in the transition, they are in an economic time warp. They are socially distinct from their children who have migrated to the cities and to the West to join modern societies.
They are a happy, cohesive and deeply religious people. But they are extremely jealous of anyone who gets ahead. And their trait for jealousy runs deep. It is glaringly visible when one travels outside the cities. Country folk, even in very small towns where one would expect people to work together to protect the community, fence themselves in. They do it to protect themselves from their neighbors who will destroy or steal anything better than they have. They work together as long an no individual does better than anyone else.
The Prime Minister's campaign against business elite strikes a cord with them. With his targets being successful people, he can do no wrong since being successful is culturally unacceptable. The end justifies the means used to keep people socially equal.
The new Poland is different. It is driven by a young, competitive, educated and mobile work force. They are Poland's main attraction to foreign businesses coming to Poland. They are the future of the country. They, and not the country folk, will move the country forward.
But these young people are turned off. They see little future for themselves in Poland. They see their future in the West. And they are heading West.
In the last elections, voter turnout was about 40%. The young generally did not vote. And that brought Kaczynski to power with a vote of about 10% of the population.
The elections this time pit Kaczynski and his rural voter base against the Civic Platform and its base of young and business people. The distinction between the parties is not as much in economic policies as in attitude toward the world around them.
The young will make the choice for the country. If they vote, they may put the Civic Platform in power and change the attitude of the Polish Government toward business and the world. If they do not vote, they may put Kaczynski in power and allow him to drive the country on a rural base with a Government pushing programs designed to keep their support.
Former President Kwasniewski predicted that if Kaczynski gets the power he wants, there will be another mass exodus of Poles as they go West for a better life. If that happens, the image of Poland will likely be that of the old backward Poland and not that of an up and coming participant in the modern world.
The Polish voters are choosing not only their Government but their image and way of life. And the future of the young Polish people in Western Europe.
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