Marching for Openness and Normality

What pisses me off about Poland's government for the past eight years? Above all, it's this communist-era inability to separate Party from State. The noxious lies that pour out of the publicly funded TV and radio stations, the purchasing of voters' loyalty through social transfers, the brazen use of state-owned enterprises for party-political purposes, all paid for by taxpayers' money, destroys trust in government.

Poland has been drifting in the wrong direction since 2015, and it's really down to one embittered man of modest stature. And people have had enough.

I was amazed at the size of the crowds that turned out today - estimated at 500,000 - a scale that matched the two anti-Brexit demos that I attended in London in March and October 2019. Unlike those, however, held three years after the referendum, this one still is in good time. I can only hope that having a stranglehold on the public media that reach rural voters will not prove sufficient to keep PiS in power this time round.

Listening to the speeches: Rafał Trzaskowski, Warsaw's mayor, proved more popular than Donald Tusk or dear old Lech Wałęsa, whose ramblings were received with a thunderous and quasi-ironic 'DZIĘ-KU-JE-MY!! DZIĘ-KU-JE-MY!' from the crowd as he droned on about himself and how important he once was. It took a while for the crowd to move from the meeting point, Plac Na Rozdrożu (Bifurcation of Ways Place), and once moving, en route for Plac Zamkowy, it became obvious just how many people were present. This was judged to be Poland's biggest protest march since 1990.

"Let me thpeak to them, Pontiuth..." 

"By the time we got to Piękna, we were half a million strong"

But large crowds in capital cities do not determine electoral outcomes - something I learnt on the streets of London in 2019. Look at Hungary - Budapest was solidly anti-Orban, Orban got back in. Look at Turkey - Istanbul was solidly anti-Erdogan, Erdogan got back in. London was against Brexit - Brexit got done. 

I can only hope for Poland's long-term future that voters bid farewell to Kaczyński and his retinue of pliant party placemen. What will be needed is a de-politicisation of the Polish state; removing parties from the mechanism of administration. I'd ideally like to see Poland as a no-party state, run by a meritocratic technocracy - or technocratic meritocracy - that aims for optimal policy outcomes for society, and not securing yet another election win, hanging on to power for the sake of hanging onto power.

My view of politicians is similar to Groucho Marx's view of clubs - anyone who wants to be elected should automatically be barred from running for election. The most noxious sort of would-be politician being the psychopathic narcissist - or narcissistic psychopath. Barred for life.

Ministries, state-owned enterprises and public media should not be run by people chosen on the basis of party loyalty, but by those best qualified to run them.

Poland is doing well but it could be doing a whole lot better with a government that understands the need for a stable, predictable, transparent legislative and regulatory environment. And run by people who want the best for the nation, not just power for themselves.

This time two years ago:
40th anniversary of the Osieck railway accident

This time three years ago:
Moonrise, Nowa Wola

This time four years ago:

Awaiting the Summer Sublime

This time seven years ago:
4 June - a date remembered for...?

This time eight years ago:
Corpus Christi, rural Mazovia

This time nine years ago:
25th anniversary of Poland's transition

This time ten years ago:
Poland's infrastructure progress

This time 12 years ago:
Wetlands in late-spring

This time 13 years ago:
Jeziorki's flood of floods: Puławska and Pozytywki

Jeziorki's flood of floods: Sarabandy and Karczunkowska

Jeziorki's flood of floods: Trombity and Kórnicka

This time 14 years ago:
Another time, another place