Poland’s ‘Conservative Revolution’ | Visegrad Insight
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The return to power of the PiS, the Law and Justice Party, in Poland has become a major challenge to, if not to say: a real headache for EU policy makers. Warsaw and Brussels have embarked on a verbal war, after the Szydło Government, encouraged by its architect and strong man, Jarosław Kaczyński, launched a series of highly controversial institutional and legal reforms (Constitutional Court, public broadcasting service). The ‘Conservative Revolution’ is in full swing.
The European Commission announced that it ‘will carry out a preliminary assessment on this matter under the rule of law framework’ (13 January) and ‘deemed it necessary to formalise its assessment of the current situation in [an] Opinion’ (1 June), thus increasing pressure on Warsaw, while European Parliament adopted a very ciritical resolution on the state of democracy, rule of law and human rights in Poland (13 April).
Individual member states in Western Europe, especially Germany, have repeatedly expressed their concerns. Although it might be tempting for Beata Szydło and her Ministers to point out to ‘Old Europe’ that the EU recently concluded an agreement with a country that could be labelled a putinesque dictatorship on the rise: Turkey.