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‘New era’: Tusk celebrates exit polls suggesting opposition win in Poland
(www.aljazeera.com)
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this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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The situation in Poland is really not comparable to that of Germany. The far-right party which has held power for almost a decade has been undermining the rule of law and democratic institutions, to the point where this election was an existential question for Polish democracy.
Sure, it's annoying if Germany will go right back to decades of CDU rule, but it's not exactly an existential threat to its democracy. The situation in Poland is more comparable to if AFD had ruled by majority for eight years, gotten rid of judicial independence and undermined the independence of the media, and now finally lost the election to parties who are dedicated to preserving democracy. It is, of course, not exactly like that either, but it's more comparable.
So there's reason to celebrate - even if everything here on out is completely dysfunctional, it's still a gigantic victory for democracy in Europe.
Not saying you're wrong - I'm just not sure the comparison makes sense. :)
Of course it's a huge victory. I'm just afraid that if some key issues aren't handled to the voters' satisfaction (be it left leaning or right leaning voters) they will be disappointed in this coalition and again turn to pis or other, fringe parties which would give pis more power again. We have seen so often, not only in Germany, how people vote for a party solely because of one single issue and if you have to trade off some of your democratic systems to reach that goal that's a sacrifice they're willing to make.
What's worse in Poland is that PiS still have the president, giving them a presidential veto which could make the process of rebuilding democracy more challenging. In that sense it's similar to the US where the crazies still control the house.