The Return of the Radical Right in Poland
The Return of the Radical Right in Poland:
The Betrayal of Solidarity and the Politics of Discontent
By Brian Porter
Something has gone very, very wrong in Poland. After elections last September, a group called “Law and Justice,” led by a longtime Solidarity activist and right-wing politician named Jaroslaw Kaczynski, emerged as the largest party in parliament. Victory in the following month’s presidential election went to Kaczynski’s identical twin Lech.
Cartoonists had an easy time lampooning these two former child actors, with their famously short stature and uncharismatic appear-ance. The fact that their name derives from the word for “duck” (kaczor), and that the two highest offices in the Polish state are now occupied by men who can only be distinguished because of a small mole on Jaroslaw’s nose, gave satirists even more ammunition. But there is nothing funny about Poland’s new government.
The Kaczynskis formed a coalition with an agrarian populist group called “Self-Defense” and a radical-right party with the innocuous name of “The League of Polish Families.” Polite Western journalists have labeled this government “center-right” or “conservative,” but it is hard to find anything centrist about those holding power in Warsaw today. Even Europe’s mainstream conservative parties have publicly disavowed any affiliation with Law and Justice (not to mention the other two coalition members). Put simply, the extreme right now rules Poland, and people widely considered marginal and dangerous even a year ago are now within the corridors of power.
By appointing Roman Giertych, the leader of The League of Polish Families, to the position of vice-premier and minister of education, the Kaczynskis have bestowed legitimacy on a volatile extremist who traces his ideological roots to “National Democracy,” a radical right movement from the interwar years. Giertych has filled a number of second-tier government positions with supporters who were active in neo-fascist groups as recently as the late 1990s. The Kaczynskis themselves have established close ties to the “Radio Maryja” media network, which propagates a combination of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and ultra-conservative Catholic religiosity. Although neither of the brothers have any personal history of anti-Jewish remarks (even in private, by all accounts), they have found plenty of ways to appeal to a racist electorate while keeping their own hands clean.