Poland Unexpected Turn

Poland Unexpected Turn

"From now on it is only through a conscious choice and through a deliberate policy that humanity can survive."

Pope John Paul II

By: Erreh Svaia

As our world is starting to become a more and more polarized place, hard times always bring ou the worst of us, the devastating world crisis of the 2008 became a fertile soil for extremism and fundamentalism, either from the right or from the left, even in the U.S., a country initially shaken by the crisis, and nowadays one of the most successful to almost come out of it, this sort of radical and violent politics seem to be gaining more and more support, this phenomenon brought the extreme right populism from the wild territories of people like Donald Trump and the Tea Party to the current Republican leadership of Paul Ryan, the pure embodiment of an extreme right wing that demands all that's conservative, anachronistic and xenophobic, a truly damaging movement, just as much as the so called “Socialismo del Siglo 21” which happened mainly in southern Latin America countries like Venezuela and Ecuador among others, and in southern Europe with Syriza and Podemos as its main representatives, is a movement that doesn’t seem to stop as the world is still a turbulent place, security became precarious, people and countries seem to be determined to look for apparently safer and more isolated positions, giving a chance to more conservative and xenophobic points of view to become stronger, just as it happened in Europe before the two big wars.

Poland is one of Europe's main protagonists of today, a country once synonym of openness, leadership and courage, with a continuously growing healthy economy, Poland is the former communist satellite country to best come out of the so called “shock therapy”, and whose closeness to other European strong motors like Germany has keep them going on and on with amazing economic results, so it's really a shocking surprise that in the most recent elections Poland turned to the right, the extreme right; Could it be the fear that is driving Poland towards right wing extremism? With a Germany increasingly divided from within because of social movements against migration like Pegida, and Russia with its plans to destabilize the UN by increasing its influence in once former satellite countries, it seems that Poland, in an almost paranoid and unreasonable way, is looking for a safer position, hardening their politics, military, politically and religiously, with the Catholic Church, once protagonist along with legendary Solidarity Union, to defeat communism, as a big influence in todays elected ultra conservative government looking to oppose the advance of laicism and Islamism in Europe.

Poland, once a heaven for immigration, is slowly closing its door towards the outside world, is increasing its troops to the east and getting in big risk of contagion from Germany recent polarization, it seems that what many thought was a big chance for Poland to become the common bridge between Russia and the UE, is slowly falling down, severing all possibilities of further agreements between east and west, but with positions similar to the populist government of Hungarian prime Minister, Victor Orban, can work in an unexpected way for the Polish nation, as they seem to be gravitated toward Orban´s populists and conservative catholic politics or another right wing extremist party like Marine Le Pen´s National Front in France, with an extreme view against Islam; Could Poland unexpectedly fall in the trap of the right wing, right where Russia wants them? Let’s not forget that there is still the shadow of doubt surrounding a supposed financial backing of the National Front in France by Russia, putting Poland in an incongruous place where they try to protect form Russia, question their EU´s membership and perhaps ending precisely on the cat´s paws.

Populist politics from the extreme right are slowly becoming the big menace on central and northern Europe, and for the world the delicate equilibrium we are all asking for is simply not going to arrive, as the world is again being divided between left and right, a discussion many of us thought dead a long time ago; Have we really learned important lessons from the past? Or our memories are to easily erase opening the chances of commuting again terrible mistakes from the past? As America wakes up in Argentina from the populist left wing nightmare, Europe falls prey of the populist right wing, as Germany divides form within, Turkey also confirms a defensive position closing its border and reaffirming the authoritarian government of Erdogan Recep, and in France, with Marine Le Pen's National Front, it seems that the danger shine is starting to turn on, as we approach a zone of no turning back, let´s not forget that fear opens the doors to illiberal politics in exchange of more supposed security from outside influence, finally preparing the table for authoritarian regimes to arrive.