Polish politics enter a critical period

Populist politicians can seriously damage their country's macroeconomic fundamentals to the point where their stated aim - making life better for the ordinary citizen - ends up working in reverse. Take Brazil or Venezuela for example.

The interface between politics (which party you vote for) and policy (the competent delivery of a well-organised state) is complex and few voters see it in action.

Members of Parliament, posłowie, deputies - are elected legislators. Their job is to propose laws, shape those laws, vote them into force, thus changing the shape of the state - for better or for worse. The quality of that legislation is crucial, whether it be the transposition of EU Directives into national law, or determining the law at the national level where appropriate.

The law must be simple to interpret - so an administrator (urzędnik) in Białystok will understand the law's intent - and act accordingly - in the same way as an urzędnik in Wrocław or Łódź. To ensure the wording of the law is clear and unambiguous - and reflects the will of the people - legislators, our elected law-makers - must be up to the job. They have to be intelligent enough to grasp the complexity of what they do, and appreciate the consequences of their decisions.

My professional life brings me into close everyday contact with the consequences of Poland's elected law-makers' decisions. Whether it be the digitisation of medical services, municipal waste collection, vocational education, renewable energy or public procurement, I can see how the precise wording and interpretation of the law as it is set out by our elected posłowie has a tangible effect on people's lives. A well-organised state is an efficient and happy state. Bad things happen there less often.

Example. The Sejm is currently debating an amendment to the law on the delivery of medical services, to allow for telemedicine (remote diagnosis). This would allow a doctor sitting at a computer many kilometers from the patient to diagnose symptoms using online tools such as webcams, scans of ECG readouts or e-mails from specialists. Had not some bright spark spotted it, the amended law might have insisted that the room in which the doctor's computer sits be lined with washable tiles. And in the absence of such tiles, the doctor would have been liable to be fined or be struck off. Fortunately, this absurdity was picked up in the draft law's third reading.

My point is this. If you elect pop stars, actors, primary school teachers, farmers - they may mean well - but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of law making - a tedious and highly detailed activity - their attention may stray from getting the letter of the law right. And the consequences will be felt by us all. If they're not up for the hard grind of the legislative process, they will be letting down the electorate.

Law making should be left to those who can do it. Hustings should be more about competence than charisma. Experience is important, as is intelligence. We need legislators who can hang their egos on the coat peg as they enter the legislative chamber and focus long and hard on the outcome of their deliberations

Yet worse than amateurs in power, I fear idealogues. People who fail to see common sense, because they are guided by one ideology or another. Uncompromisingly they will force their agenda, irrespective of whether it improves the lot of the average citizen.

On Sunday 25 October, we'll be offered the choice of who is to govern Poland for the next four years. Poland is a great European economic success. The economy is currently growing at an annualised pace of 3.6%. No other large EU member state can match that. The danger is that with a populist tax-and-spend, economically nationalist, government in power, foreign investment will be discouraged, jobs growth will cease, entrepreneurs will up sticks and move elsewhere, inefficient state enterprises will be propped up with taxpayers' money, and rent-seeking cronyism will take hold.

So who to vote for? Until Ryszard Petru nailed his colours to the mast, I'd have stuck with PO. But they are a spent force, especially after the departure to Brussels of Donald Tusk. They have become stale, complacent. They need a jolt of reformist zeal. This could come from a junior coalition partner like Ryszard Petru and his .nowocześni party.

Polling 8.1% in yesterday's Radio ZET opinion survey, .nowocześni are in the running to make it over the 5% threshold and get into parliament. Despite the polls' increasing unreliability, it seem certain that Petru's party will make it into the next Sejm. The question who else of the smaller parties will.

The big question mark is Kukiz '15. Without any real policies, their support is evaporating from poll to poll. A protest party that can offer no meaningful alternative, it is currently polling around 6%-7% - enough to get into Sejm, but a far cry from the 20% that Paweł Kukiz polled in May's presidential election.

There's three weeks to go; the election will be crucial. The outcome can be either 'steady as she goes' with a PO-led coalition roughly continuing on a similar course the past eight years - though hopefully with a jolt of Petru, or turn in a populist, amateur, shambolic direction that would shame Poland internationally and harm its healthy economic growth prospects.

I shall be voting for Ryszard Petru and .nowocześni. (Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have gathered that by now!)

More on Polish politics between now and the election!

This time two years ago:
First intimation of new Biedronka store for Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Moni leaves home for Łódź film school

This time five years ago:
Out and about in Jeziorki

This time six years ago:
Funeral of Lt. Cmdr. Tadeusz Lesisz

This time seven years ago:
Puławska by night