State capture refers to a complex and unpleasant process in which a political party or group gains control over a state’s institutions through various forms of corruption, concentrated propaganda, and bad legislation. Sometimes, even constitutions have to be disregarded, and violence may be employed. Persuasion, bribery, or intimidation are used to manipulate the public into complying.
For the past eight years, Poland has been experiencing this process. The nationalist-conservative Law and Justice party, or PiS, which won a legitimate parliamentary election in 2015, launched an attack on the highest courts. From there, they extended their control to other aspects of the country, including civil administration, regulatory bodies, and even seemingly apolitical organizations like the forestry service. As Poland approaches another parliamentary election on October 15, it feels like an entirely different country. While some candidates remain the same, the rules, rhetoric, and stakes have changed. Inflation, migration, and women’s rights are up for debate, but in reality, the only issue on the ballot is whether PiS should continue to dominate state institutions or if they should belong to the entire nation once again.
Before I delve further into this topic, I want to emphasize my personal interest. I am married to Radek Sikorski, a Polish politician and former foreign minister who is affiliated with Civic Platform, the largest opposition party. While he is not a candidate in this election, he is campaigning for others and is a member of the European Parliament. If this information poses a problem for you, feel free to stop reading. However, it’s worth noting that sometimes, having an insider perspective provides a clearer understanding of certain stories. Once this article is published, both my husband and I could become targets of orchestrated online attacks from PiS trolling operations, face slander on state-run and state-controlled media, and potentially encounter hostility from state institutions that misuse security services to harass political opponents, including us, by fabricating financial or criminal investigations. These same institutions have placed spyware on the phones of our colleagues and friends. In the realm of Polish politics, individuals sometimes go outside or leave their phones in another room when they need to have private conversations. Unfortunately, this is the price one pays nowadays for being part of the democratic opposition.
In this sense, the Polish political system has already deviated from the norms of other democracies. In the United States, for example, followers of Fox News and Truth Social believe in a distorted version of reality, one that claims the 2020 election was stolen. Now, let’s imagine what would happen if an American politician could propagate that lie not only on social media but also with hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government, which essentially amounts to taxpayers’ money. Such a scenario, which was once unthinkable, has become a reality in Poland.
PiS’s most powerful weapon is state media, consisting of a variety of state-owned television channels, national and local, radio stations, and websites that have no equivalent in the United States. While Poland does have one fully independent satellite news station called TVN24, which is owned by Warner Bros., access to it requires a subscription fee. State television, on the other hand, is free and remains the primary source of political information for millions of people. Since 2015, PiS has increased the annual budget for state media by 2 billion zlotys (approximately $450 million), a substantial amount in Poland. With this funding, the state can produce some of the most aggressive and virulent television propaganda found in any democratic country.
State media operates by targeting specific individuals and repeatedly airing angry and repetitive stories about them. The main news program consistently portrays the leader of Civic Platform, Donald Tusk, as dishonest, treasonous, and, above all, German. Tusk, who previously served as the president of the European Council, once delivered a speech online to Germany’s Christian Democratic Union during the pandemic. His brief closing remarks included a generic expression of good wishes in German for both Germany and Europe. However, Polish state television maliciously cut the sentence down to a single phrase, “für Deutschland,” and it has been repeated numerous times on their broadcasts.
Despite being legally obligated to maintain political neutrality, state television also selects themes that support the ruling party, particularly during election campaigns. Leading up to the parliamentary elections in 2019, state television aired a documentary called “Invasion,” which portrayed the LGBTQ community as having sinister aims, methods, and financial backing. During the presidential elections in 2020, the taxpayer-funded broadcaster described the opposition candidate as “serving Jewish interests.”
State media also conceals or downplays genuine scandals. PiS has been consistently telling the Polish public that they face an existential threat from migrants originating from the Middle East. PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski once made derogatory remarks about Syrians, characterizing them as carriers of parasites and protozoa. These words resound with echoes from Poland’s history, where Nazi occupiers in 1941 put up posters warning that Jews cause typhus. In addition to the parliamentary ballot, PiS has organized a questionable referendum consisting of four biased questions. One of these questions falsely implies that the European bureaucracy is forcing Poland to admit thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa through a forced-relocation mechanism.
The wording of this question is an outright lie. No European bureaucracy has imposed any forced-relocation mechanism. However, the more significant lie is the suggestion that PiS genuinely cares about preventing migrants from the Middle East and Africa. In reality, this government has allowed tens of thousands of migrants from these regions, as well as Central and South Asia, to enter Poland. The country now has a higher number of immigrants than ever before in its modern history. In Warsaw, I have personally encountered Tajiks, Mongols, Uzbeks, and Pakistanis who work as delivery drivers, taxi drivers, or on construction sites. Their presence is not due to European bureaucracy but rather to reports suggesting that as many as 250,000 non-European migrants have recently entered Poland, with many obtaining visas through corrupt PiS officials or intermediaries.
The leaked details surrounding this scandal, which have been uncovered by Polish independent media, are shocking. One Foreign Ministry official described a booth set up outside a Polish consulate in Africa, where individuals lined up to hand over cash. Another scandal involved a group of Indians falsely described as a Bollywood film team, who purchased EU visas from a Polish consulate in India for up to 40,000 euros each. Their intention was to use these visas to travel to Mexico in order to eventually cross the U.S. border. If you’re curious about how a prospective migrant might travel from Mumbai to the Rio Grande, this is one possible route.
Several officials, including the deputy foreign minister, have been dismissed for their involvement in visa sales. German and EU officials are seeking explanations, particularly because one former PiS minister has suggested that the government deliberately admitted migrants who were likely to head to Germany. The Germans have even instituted temporary border controls on Poland’s western border. However, the foreign-policy implications are less significant than the astonishing hypocrisy displayed by PiS officials. Their racism turned out to be less powerful than their greed.
Now, what will state television’s audience learn about this scandal? Almost nothing. Even now, days after the incident was exposed, the evening news continues to propagate the false narrative that Donald Tusk and Civic Platform want to bring more migrants to Poland. The viewers are repeatedly told that only PiS can protect Poland from this supposed flood of migrants.
However, state-owned media is only part of the story. Companies owned or controlled by the state also contribute significantly to PiS propaganda. For instance, the Polish state gas and oil company, PKN Orlen, directly possesses 20 out of 24 regional Polish daily newspapers and 120 weekly magazines. These media properties, akin to how Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas company, owns media outlets in Russia, are used to attack the opposition and bolster the government. State companies also generously fund foundations and other non-governmental organizations that spread pro-government messages. Utility companies have even sent messages to voters on their monthly bills, praising government policies and criticizing the European Union. Additionally, Orlen has seemingly lowered gas prices artificially in preparation for the election, although the company denies these claims.
Individually, highly paid executives within these state-owned companies… [Continued]
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