“Poland is a society in decline,” says Janusz. “The government party and the President speak loudly of the national “wspólnota” (community), but our society is not a community any more. It is deeply divided.“ Janusz should know: As a sociologist, he has an eye for what holds together a country in the Innermost or not. On the upcoming presidential election, he looks with great concern. “For the first Time since 1989, many citizens have doubts as to whether the ruling party would accept an electoral defeat, and in fact, the Power to give.”
Gerhard Gnauck
Political correspondent for Poland, the Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, based in Warsaw.
F. A. Z. Twitter
The sociologist can imagine that the government, should be the first ballot on Sunday for you unpleasant, would exclaim, under the pretext of the pandemic, the disaster state. Then elections could be – in this case, the second ballot – in accordance with the Constitution indefinitely postponed. Sooner or later, the political emotions could then search on the road your valve.
Janusz and his wife Ela of life in Lublin, the largest city in Poland East of the Vistula river. We meet in the well-preserved old town, in front of the building of the Krontribunals, since the 16th century. Century, the Supreme court was. Poland’s kings were liberal, and gave the nobility rights and freedoms. In addition, the city is known for here in 1918, the Catholic University of Lublin was founded. It has survived as the only private University in the entire Eastern bloc, Communist rule, and still exists today. High school teachers today, however, is not crisis-proof profession; Janusz has interpreted for German companies. A secure Job Ela has all the same: she is a German teacher. Poland is in the world, the country that, in percentage terms, most people learn English. Although English has replaced, after 1989, Russian as the first foreign language in schools, but the German claimed then, as now, on the second place.
a Growing doubt in Corona-measures
Janusz is reasonably satisfied with how the government determined at the beginning of the Corona-measures continued. But since then the doubts have grown. Also to President Andrzej Duda: He had shown since 2015 is hardly ever that he was really about the parties. Janusz calls him “want to respect the Instrument in the hands of the government party that wants to establish a belief state and the rule of law, miss.” The real ruler was the PiS Chairman Jaros?aw Kaczy?ski, however, no government office holding. “In other words: He switches and managed behind-the-Scenes, and bears zero responsibility for the consequences.” Ela for the latest Corona-the Situation is very worrying: “Poland has done much less testing than Germany, and yet we now have more infections per day than you are.” Since the beginning of the pandemic, she takes part with her mother at a Catholic Sunday worship service via Video. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of municipalities in the country now offer regularly a Transmission.
at Least Janusz already knows whom he will choose on Sunday: the independent, Catholic, but at the same time, Church-critical journalist Szymon Ho?ownia. “Intelligent and eloquent. He is a new starters in the policy, and no party has, is in the reputation that the parties enjoy in Poland, rather an advantage.“ Ho?ownia have understanding for environmental issues, which consider the government party of the “left-spinning”, says Janusz.
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test If a sociologist comes to the largest opposition party, the liberal civic platform, he can be as angry as with the PiS. “The platform has ruled under Donald Tusk for almost eight years,” he says bitterly. “Their whole policy was basically focused only on it, as many of the EU-to bring funds into the country. A social policy they had. Instead, it has damaged large parts of the society through the use of precarious work or payment. Such people like me, who would have to actually be your ordinary voters, it has quenched it. And she has learned from her mistakes. If in Germany, a party loses an election, then it is pulled relentlessly balance sheet, or?“
