The discussion on Poland’s political situation and democratic crisis
An online discussion „Democracy Crisis in Poland: the Importance of Individual Efforts in Challenging Institutional Changes“ was held on April 17th. Dr. hab. Wojciech Ciszewski, assist. prof. at the Department of Theory of the Jagiellonian University and Dr. Donatas Murauskas, teacher at the VU Law Faculty and LL.M students participated in the event and discussed democracy issues in Poland.
During the first part of the meeting W. Ciszewski and D. Murauskas talked about various features of the democracy crisis in Poland. Mr Ciszewski reminded about the essence of the crisis – an unexpected illegitimate appointment of several judges to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal that was the beginning of undemocratic actions by the Polish government in 2015.
Considering the roots of current political situation, W. Ciszewski noted, that Poland faces high level of political polarization, between conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning fractions. The ruling party also intends to take over the media, including the private one. For example, the government purchases private media companies or seeks to make obstacles for private media companies to operate in Poland.
Ciszewski shared his thoughts about common problems in democracy. He told that current democracy crisis might be caused by errors of politicians. It could happen due to the change in actions of the political elite. It occurs as, for example, tolerance for violence or violations of civil liberties of the oponents. “Democracies die in a consequence of actions of political leaders“, – he says.
In the end of the discussion students asked some questions too. They asked about current abortion regulation impact to democracy in Poland and how had the war in Ukraine affected legal crisis in Poland. Do politicians and the ruling party use current situation to their own favor? To the last question W. Ciszewski agreed, that politicians use war in the political context. He also noted, that the ruling party of Poland exposes EU negatively as an external force that is trying to make an impact in national politics.
This event was a part of the course “Protection of Human Rights in Practice”.
The video of the discussion is available on VU Law Faculty Youtube channel.