We have grown accustomed to Law and Justice, the party in power, constantly redefining the boundaries of what constitutes a democratic system.
Seizing Control of the Constitutional Court and the planned Total Ban on Abortions provoked international outrage. This led to the creation of two protest initiatives – the Committee for the Defence of Democracy KOD and the Black Protest.
The government was forced to slow down after the first campaign mobilized tens and thousands of disgruntled people to the streets but did not achieve any concessions. The total ban on abortions has been put on hold.
It was the biggest civic protest in Poland. If the Poles continue to take to the streets every time the government makes a controversial move to limit civil rights, then they will have to camp there.
Poland’s pro-abortion demonstrations were a rare triumph. Kacper Pempel/Reuters
Three events in the past few weeks have demonstrated the government’s intent to suppress plurality.
Attacks on Non-Governmental Organizations
In Eastern Europe, it is not easy to run a nongovernmental and non-profit organization.
In the Czech Republic, NGOs are attacked and even called ” unneeded. ” Viktor Orban’s government terrorizes NGOs in Hungary with nonsensical audits and calls them “foreign agent”.
Jaroslaw Kacynski makes Poland less liberal each day. Kacper Pempel/Reuters
The right-wing media and state-run TV have launched a systematic campaign of disinformation against civil society organizations, accusing them of snatching grant money from the government and taking money from foreign countries in order to undermine the Government.
The left-wing publishing company Krytyka Polityczna, as well as the Stefan Batory Foundation, have been accused by the Open Society Foundations, of being “agents”.
If they are funded by the state, it is only to disseminate “a href=”http://wyborcza.pl/7,75968,20924093″>leftist propaganda/a> using taxpayers’ money. If the government funds them, then it’s only to spread ” Leftist Propaganda ” using taxpayers’ money. They are guilty of pursuing foreign interests if they receive funding from outside the country.
It doesn’t matter that even right-wing NGOs receive outside funding, or that the websites of all accused organisations include information about their funding sources. In this case, transparency does more harm than it does good. Poland has been invaded by post-truth.
The government is now working to establish a National Centre for the Development of Civil Society that will oversee the distribution of funds towards non-profits. In a liberal democratic system, the role of civil societies is to be a watchdog, alerting people of undemocratic actions. PiS, however, has decided to take a more aggressive approach.
The new centre is likely to support a variety of organizations, including those that are “traditional”, Catholic and patriotic.
The government can still kill many organisations by cutting their state funding, even though it cannot ban the outside financing.
What is the definition of freedom of assembly? Freedom of assembly?
The amendment to the law on freedom to assemble that was passed by the Polish Parliament threatens to further undermine civic activity.
The goal of the law is to limit public gatherings – except when they are organised by the Catholic Church or the State, who will be given priority in booking spaces for meetings. The right to protest publicly was only granted until now to the first group who registered their intentions through the appropriate channels.
In the new Poland, the Catholic Church takes precedence. Kacper Pempel/Reuters
This amendment appears to be a tool that prevents conflicts between protesters by preventing two events from happening at the same moment. In reality, it simply means that events approved by the government take precedence. The Law and Justice Department’s efforts to keep opposition groups from the streets is further strengthened by a clause referring to “cyclical meetings” that take place on holidays. These will trump any one-time protests.
In practice, this means that the regular march of nationalists on Polish Independence Day will be permitted, but an anti-nationalist counter-demonstration could be dismissed simply because it would be “competition.”
Polish Ombudsman expressed concern, as did the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and the European Commission for Human Rights. Obywatele Rp is calling for a demonstration . The Committee for the Defence of Democracy also wants to bring out on the streets.
It might not be much use. It seems that the popularity of this civil group has declined. The turnout at their last demonstration on November 11 was lower than expected.
Politically Motivated Trials
What was most alarming, however, is what one can only call a politically-motivated trial. The ex-senator and former member of the European Parliament, Jozef Pior, as well as several of his colleagues, were arrested on November 29th under suspicion of corruption.
Jozef Piior is the target of political attacks. Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, CC BY-SA
Pinior is persona non-grata to the government because he was a prisoner under the Communist regime and also a member of Solidarity (the pre-1989 movement of opposition). The ruling party is trying to justify itself by blaming the anticommunist movement and attacking former Solidarity leaders. Kaczynski wants to claim the Solidarity legend for himself and rewrite the history about who played an important role in the anticommunist movement.
Pinior’s past isn’t the only obstacle. He is the most vocal critic for secret CIA detention centers in Poland . This is something that the pro-American PiS doesn’t want to hear. Pinior’s victory in the Wroclaw municipal elections could also pose a serious threat to PiS.
After a hearing in which Karol Modzelewski and Henryk Wujec were present, the court in Poznan found Pinior not guilty. Former dissidents warned in the media that history was dangerously close to repeating itself when they found themselves in court again to defend a friend who had been detained due to political reasons.
The Pinior incident seems to be isolated for the time being. It could set a precedent to discredit political opponents in the name of fighting corruption.
In spite of all this, PiS poll ratings have not changed substantially. The European Union is more concerned about other things than the quality and stability of Polish democracy. Fragmented Polish Opposition is unable to provide a better alternative to returning to the liberal status-quo that led to PiS’s election.