On Sunday, Warsaw saw a peaceful march of 500,000 people marking the 34th anniversary of elections that led to Poland’s nonviolent exit from communism. However, this mass gathering was not only a celebration of the past but also a protest against the current Polish government’s efforts to return the country to autocracy. The Law and Justice Party government had spent the previous week discouraging Poles from participating and, on its official Twitter account, even published an outrageous video spot featuring footage of train tracks in front of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with The June 4th March superimposed over the camp’s entrance, which stoked public anxiety leading up to the event. Elections are often thought to be boring, but the fact that commemorating the anniversary of elections held more than three decades ago strikes such fear into the hearts of Poland’s governing elite speaks to the severity of the situation. The ruling party has spent the past two decades convincing voters that the 1989 election should be a source of shame and discouraging them from voting. As parliamentary elections approach this fall, the Law and Justice Party is making full use of antidemocratic tactics to maintain power. This includes subordinating the judiciary to elected politicians, turning public media into government propaganda outlets, and fomenting culture wars. The government is also passing laws that could prevent opposition politicians from running and revoke contracts in critical commercial sectors, making it essentially an attack on Polish democracy. Polish civil-society critics have focused primarily on what the law means for elections, as the new commission can ban anyone from public office for 10 years, with Law and Justice lawmakers vocal about their intention to use the law against Poland’s main opposition politician, former Prime Minister and former European Council President Donald Tusk. The law is Polish McCarthyism, plain and simple. While a half-million people took to the streets to protest Law and Justice’s move towards autocracy, Law and Justice has a history of waiting out protests before enforcing their authoritarian policies. The hard part will be turning Sunday’s turnout in Warsaw’s streets into votes at the polls this autumn.
A New McCarthyism is Not Something Poland is Prepared to Embrace
