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https://theconversation.com/young-female-voters-were-the-key-to-defeating-populists-in-polands-election-providing-a-blueprint-to-reverse-democracys-decline-216397>
"The results of Poland’s parliamentary elections held on Oct. 15, 2023, have
been lauded as a blow against populism – and they may also hold important
lessons for reversing democracy’s decline.
In the vote, the conservative and increasingly autocratic Law and Justice Party
(PiS), which has ruled since 2015, still received the largest number of seats
(35%) in Poland’s Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament.
But it was not enough to form a majority. Instead, it looks likely that the
progressive Civic Platform will join forces with the Third Wave and New Left,
which together received 54% of the votes.
Should that be the case, they will rule as a liberal, pro-European Union
government – a far cry from the policies of the PiS, which during its tenure
attacked the independence of courts, limited the space for civil society and
manipulated the public media.
Heading into the national elections, there was no guarantee that politics in
Poland would not continue down this route. There were, in fact, many reasons to
wonder whether the October elections were fair.
The PiS government used the elections as an opportunity to simultaneously hold
a national referendum, asking voters to answer questions about migrants, border
walls, the retirement age and the selling off of state assets – issues known to
be unifying for its supporters.
PiS also used public media to criticize the opposition. State TV, newspapers
and social media – which critics say has, over the preceding eight years,
stopped being pluralistic and independent – consistently misrepresented facts
and attacked the opposition, often with outlandish allegations. In addition,
exploitation of state-owned companies and public funds gave PiS a “clear
advantage” going into the polls, according to the election observers at the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
But as a scholar of civil society in central Europe, I was not surprised by the
election results. My new co-authored book, “Activism in Hard Times in Central
and Eastern Europe: People Power,” explores the role that informal activism –
that is, non-organized, individual action by citizens – can have in electoral
politics.
Here are five factors that contributed to the Polish election result – and
could have implications for other countries faced with democratic backsliding."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
