Wojciech Przybylski: the upcoming elections are important for the future of Poland

20.01.2023 0 By NS.Writer

Wojciech Przybylski

As you know, Poland is on the eve of parliamentary elections. We asked a good friend of Ukraine, the editor-in-chief of Visegrád Insight, and the head of the ResPublica foundation in Warsaw, Wojciech Przybylski, about the prospects of the ruling PiS party and the opposition being elected by the Polish people.

This year’s elections are fundamentally important for the direction of Poland in Europe in the context of global affairs, and for the rest of Europe because it’s currently a country deeply polarized and not maximizing the potential that it has been presented with. It could work much better with all the opportunities of membership with NATO, the EU, and, to a large extent, benefiting from the geopolitical situation. Because let’s be frank, Poland is not only helping Ukraine, but it’s benefiting enormously in relative terms from the attention that was given by the economic relocation of business actors from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to Poland and from the focus of global actors who assist Ukraine and the country.

That is, Poland has set at least the biggest transportation hub, but of course, it is also more direct assistance that Poland is providing. The current elections will not change much in the direction of support, but the sitting government in Poland has been polarizing not only the society, but it has been also in confrontation with our key allies over many different things from the rule of law, investment, political influence and the directions of the EU development. Sure, it was right about the Russian hostile moves as Poland overall has been, and it’s not an issue of polarization between the government and opposition, but it has been wrong about all the other things including how to make our key allies and partners act in coordination better, more efficiently when it comes to this support. And there is a general belief that with the change of government, international opportunities would be presented to Poland in a more favourable manner. This is how it looks from the point of view of the society.

There was horrible and lamentable political messaging, and political language of the government which is dividing the society, a society that nevertheless stays strong and stays united in a good humanitarian cause of supporting the neighbours and not being so much in love with any of the political parties. In fact, the Polish society is by the opinion polls declaring less and less interest in party politics but is very active and supportive towards the refugees from Ukraine. So, I think these elections will not change again the direction of Polish society. But with the change of leadership that potentially could come in place with the abandonment of the polarization tactics by the current government, there are opportunities. These are options to make our society and our lives much better in a sense of friendly neighbor-to-neighbor relations, regardless of our political and party preferences in the country.

And finally, it seems that this is the only opportunity to reverse many of the changes that the current government tried and has been not very efficient at, but nevertheless is continuously trying to centralize power take. Control over this system, havinga more militant and autocratic police force under political control and make citizens’ life less empowered and more dependable on the central government. So, if the elections bring a different result from the point of view of today, this will be good news for Polish society. It will present us with a new highway to the future, which is currently locked. As I stated in the beginning it is not just economic opportunities, but there are many more challenges coming from all sides. Not just the war, the climate, but also the economic turmoil, the health system, and the psychological effects on the younger generation which in 15 or 20 years sure will change the way our country looks. So, the job to work on these issues and problems needs to start today. That’s why and how this upcoming election is important.

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