Polish Political Roulette: A winner every time?

You might say that Polish voters are a fickle group. At least seemingly more so than Polish-American voters with their entrenched voting habits.

Not once have Poles given any political party a second term of power since throwing off the yoke of socialism and the misery that 60 years of tyrannical communism brought them.

Poles’ yearning for freedom and liberty is hardwired into their DNA.

Kosciuszko & Pulaski

Kosciuszko and Pulaski didn’t have a stake in whether our American revolution was successful or not. Yet, they came here serving as generals on their own volition, where freedom was being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.

Stubborn and strong-minded? Do you know any dyed in wool Poles who are not?

During the communist era, one might imagine Poles were as weary as Colonial Americans at the Boston Tea Party struggling against the brute force of a much too powerful government. The socialist regime in Poland was intervening in daily life and taking away incentives for rugged individual entrepeurship by bulldozing the playing field with Politburo machinery and redistributing wealth within the dictated parameters of Marxist philosophy that was detested by most Poles.

Since crushing the Iron Curtain in 1989, they voted for a different government each time parliamentary elections were held insuring by fiat that no political party got too entrenched in power.

In spite of revolving door politics, Poland shot straight up the economic ladder, from an also ran country to rank 18 in terms of GDP across the globe.

Fresh ideas and policies came with each election. Perhaps that is one of the leading factors why Poland was the only EU country to dodge the economic meltdown.  They were the only EU country to have back-to-back years of positive economic growth and never having a down year.

Most spectators say on October 9, the incumbent Civic Platform party is likely to be returned as the majority or leader of a coalition government breaking the one term tradition when voters choose expanding prosperity over policies thereby rewarding Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s party with victory.



Andrew Michta



"If you look at the moving sands of the Polish political scene since 1989, a victory for the current governing party would show a continuity that hasn't been seen since the beginning of the transformation," said Andrew Michta, head of the German Marshall Fund's Warsaw office. A Tusk win "would mean people were responding to how full their purses are rather than reacting to ideological issues."

Maciej Krzak

Impervious to global financial catastrophes, living standards in Poland continue to rapidly advance unlike the recent massive loss of individual wealth in America. "The Polish economy really is in pretty good shape -- that's not just some kind of government propaganda," said Maciej Krzak, head of macroeconomics at the Warsaw-based Center for Social and Economic Research. "Poland can aspire, with time, to become one of the EU's largest economies."

Even though Tusk’s party lacks substance and ambition, Poland’s economy grew 4.4% from 2007 to 2010 while the EU average was barely one-tenth of one percent.

The reasons why Poland kept its economy growing right through the thick of the Great Recession has been discussed in previous columns. One could reasonably argue that Tusk holds a fist full of aces dealt by the practicality and common sense embraced by Poles with their reborn liberty.

After Poles freed themselves from a society of socialist dependency, it did not matter who was in office. Nobody in power could diminish the individual’s determination to prosper under newfound freedom. They molded their hills and mountains on that once desolate playing field by the sweat of their ingenuity and enterprise.

The political pundits in Warsaw predict Civil Platform will be the first party to achieve back-to-back wins in parliamentary elections. However, I’m a bit hesitant to go along.

At least now you have Huggies

I contend that if voters in their twenties who at best were in diapers during the Communist Era, are not represented in large numbers at the polls, there’s a chance that the tradition of not re-electing the incumbent government will stand.

Tusk’s party has become increasingly “content-free”, just like the MTV generation. They realize if they stand for something they might offend somebody. So, they mumble vaguely, promise to work hard, and all the while get less and less specific about issues. Finding a position paper from them is next to impossible.

With the lack of principles and conviction, the centrist party is hoping to win by presenting themselves as a “safe pair of hands” to keep steering Poland around Europe’s economic crisis.

Now, there’s a good question for fickle American voters.

Are you in good hands?