This article mostly disputes fairness of the election saying that they are still free. I think there are very reasonable points that this is not the case.
Free elections are confidential. By creating an absurd referendum which can be only boycotted and holding it at the same time as general elections people will be able to tell who’s voting for PiS and not based on whether they refuse referendum ballot.
This is a real issue - my aunt who lives in a rural Poland told me she won’t vote because she would either have to participate in referendum and contribute to it being lawfully binding, or face backlash from entire village for admitting to not voting for PiS. I convinced her that the referendum results are so open to interpretation that it doesn’t matter but there will be plenty of people in the same situation that feel coerced into impossible scenario.
The other thing that defines free elections is that every vote counts the same. Voting district sizes haven’t been adjusted for ages despite tectonic shifts in demographics. Obviously the rural regions that have been depopulating in favor of bigger cities will vote for PiS and will enjoy skewed vote weights.
As a North American, I shudder the future that the PiS did to Poland while the GOP are doing the same thing here
There are plenty of similarities in modern authoritarian right playbook. In some aspects Poland did some things first, like using high courts to legislate abortion bans which US only followed later. I wonder if we’ll see some January 6th stuff if PiS loses, as unlikely as it might seem.
The goal is to never lose. Based on this article and the “election” process, they have that already secured
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The elections to be held on 15 October will determine the future of Poland — and, in the process, of the European Union and Europe more broadly — for many years, perhaps decades to come.
After two consecutive parliamentary and presidential elections over the last eight years, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński will be on a safe road to emulate his role model, Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
As Kaczyński and his closest collaborators have made abundantly clear, his party needs a third consecutive mandate in order to complete its “reforms" — read: capture or disable the last remaining traces of pluralism and institutional independence, such as some recalcitrant judges or private media and NGOs critical of the ruling elite.
Good old-fashioned pork-barrel policies are in full swing: PiS has been throwing gifts at its usual clients since late spring this year, and over time, the speed and the size of those presents have grown exponentially.
The vulgarity and partisanship of TVP — the state-controlled broadcaster, which has a monopoly in some areas of the country — is difficult to describe; especially in pre-election times, it becomes a non-stop electoral propaganda machine.
This is a long list, but “The Law to Take Out Tusk” also merits a mention: setting up a kangaroo court tasked with demonstrating that the leader of the main opposition party has been acting under the influence of Russians.
The original article contains 1,338 words, the summary contains 227 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
