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• #Democracy 3 poland series

In total, Poland wants to have 6-9 GW of nuclear power installed over the next two decades, with nuclear a core part of the country’s strategy to move away from its dependency on coal.Ĭzech First vs Czech Fearless Babis for president! Initially, Poland plans to build three reactors next to the Baltic coast, with a further three constructed later at a location inland. Companies from France and South Korea, which were also interested, could be involved in further stages of construction. Two other polls also suggest the majority of Poles blame the Polish government – and not the European Commission – for the suspension of billions of euros from the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund and the threat to suspend billions more of EU budget funds.Īs expected, the Polish government selected the US’s Westinghouse to build the six nuclear reactors it wants to have operational by 2043. According to a recent poll conducted by CBOS, the popularity of the government led by Mateusz Morawiecki has dropped to 26 per cent, its lowest ever level since taking office in 2015. Given this, the ruling PiS party is no doubt factoring in how building a new wall on the Kaliningrad border could boost its support. While it’s unclear what will transpire on Poland’s border with Russia over the next few months, one thing is obvious: the security sphere is one area where the public is generally satisfied with the Polish government, despite its otherwise decline in popularity. On the other hand, locals have been reporting sounds of military exercises being conducted by the Russians on their side of the border over the last few weeks, and experts warn the government needs to keep a careful watch on this border area, as Russia could attempt a military operation – hybrid or even conventional – in the future, depending on the evolution of the war in Ukraine. After all, Poland used a barbed-wire barrier initially on the Polish-Belarusian border to little effect even a more solid wall in place today on that border seems unable to stop all the migrants trying to cross. While few in Poland doubt the need to take strong measures to stand up to Russia, which is waging war in next-door Ukraine, some doubt whether a few rows of barbed wire that the government plans to put up would actually prevent migrants sent over the border by Russia from getting across. After providing this account, I offer tentative explanations of the sources of PiS electoral success and then of its strong popularity in the society (Part 4), and in the Conclusions, I take a step back from the detailed account to offer more general observations about what the Polish case can teach us about the vexed question hotly debated in political sciences and constitutional theory these days, namely whether a “populist democracy” or “illiberal democracy” is still a democracy tout court.An announcement by the Polish government this week that it will construct a wall on its border with the Russian exclave Kaliningrad to prevent a new migration wave into the EU was met with a mixed response at home. This account is preceded by first outlining the general characteristics of Polish transformation since 2015 (in Part 1), and then explaining why the concept of “anti-constitutional populist backsliding” is the most appropriate way of characterising it (Part 2): it is “anti-constitutional” because it proceeds through statutory “amendments” and outright breaches of the Constitution it is “populist” because the ruling elite is actively concerned to foment societal support and mobilisation, and it is “backsliding” because it should be seen against the baseline of high democratic standards already achieved in the recent past.

In this paper, I provide a detailed account (in Part 3) of how comprehensive and momentous the legal changes are, in particular going so far as to dismantle institutional checks on the government (including paralysis the Constitutional Tribunal, and then conversion of it into an active supporter of the government) and to erode a number of individual and political rights, such as the right to assembly and privacy.

#Democracy 3 poland series

A dramatic change occurred in Polish constitutional politics in 2015: a combined presidential and parliamentary victory of the populist Law and Justice party began a series of deep political and legal changes which turned the constitutional order on its head in many respects.