2023-12-11 23:10:06
by Marco Imarisio
The moderate leader gains confidence: “We will right every wrong.” The sessions of the House were broadcast in cinemas
When Lech Walesa enters Parliament wearing a red sweatshirt with the words “Constitution” on it, everything is already clear. The deputies who stand to applaud him represent the abundant majority of the chamber, from the left to the center and beyond, led by the eternal comeback Donald Tusk, liberal and pro-European. Only the exponents of Law and Justice (Pis), the party that has governed Poland for the last eight years, imposing an increasingly sovereignist and anti-European swerve, remain seated. It is nine in the morning, and the presence of the old lion of Solidarnosc, who rarely and reluctantly leaves his home in Gdansk, is equivalent to a sort of blessing to a new era.
The end was known, the film was long, because almost two months have passed since the vote of last October 15th which sanctioned perhaps one of the biggest surprises of recent years. That day, the opposition led by the former president of the European Parliament Tusk beat Jaroslav Kaczynski’s party, which inspired reforms deemed illiberal by the European Union and beyond, against all polls and predictions. But few wanted to miss the show.
Try to imagine Rai Parliament setting an audience record, surpassing even the generalist channels. In the last week, during the sessions of the Polish Chamber, it happened. And four cinemas in Warsaw, including the historic Film Library inside the Palace of Culture, symbol of the capital, were filled with spectators who wanted to enjoy on the giant screen the announced failure of the vote of confidence of the outgoing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who a month ago, according to the Constitution, he had received the task of forming the government from President Andrzey Duda, because the Pis had in any case been the most voted party. Group viewings were also reported in Krakow, Lodz and Wroclaw. The word popcorn has been one of the most popular in Poland in recent times.
These are not color details. Rather, they are signs of a sense of liberation that pervades at least metropolitan Poland, which felt increasingly on the margins of the European community. And they also represent proof of how much Kaczynski and the Pis had lost control of the country, theorizing a sort of illiberal democracy, imposing laws that effectively prohibited abortion, redesigning the Constitutional Court to transform it into a government annex, attacking the State the opponents and above all Tusk, pointed out as a traitor to the homeland in the pay of Germany.
In recent months, in the name of anti-Europeanism, the government had threatened to no longer support Ukraine, almost a heresy in a country founded on aversion to Russia. The limit was full, analysts of all levels now say. In his speech, Morawiecki theorized «a Europe made up of homelands, not a Europe without any more homelands». Dorota Olko, a young new parliamentarian from Lewica, the left wing of Tusk’s coalition, called him out. “The problem is that the Poles no longer want a homeland like yours,” she said.
The vote of confidence crystallized that of two months ago. No defection in the camp he is preparing to govern. No Pis government. Klaudia Jachira, a liberal MP from Tusk’s Civic Platform, waved a banner in front of Morawiecki. “Goodbye, liar.” At 6 pm, as expected, Tusk was appointed prime minister. «This is a beautiful day, for all those who in recent years have deeply believed that we would sweep away darkness and evil. Together, we will right every wrong, to make sure that everyone, without exception, feels at home.” Kaczynski took the stage without permission, and in the center of Parliament he reiterated his personal obsession, claiming that for him Tusk will always be “a secret agent of Germany”.
All the leaders of the European institutions sent their best wishes to the “dear old friend” Tusk. Today the new prime minister will present his ministers, and tomorrow he will be sworn in by President Duda. Which however is considered the continuation of Kaczynski with another name. The president can block any new law or reform attempt, and he still has two and a half years left in office. But the Polish transition may be less difficult than expected. Having sensed the wind, Duda sent out a clear message by hastening to appoint as his Prime Councilor Marcin Mastalerek, a former minister who was kicked out of the government and the Pis because he was against Kaczynski’s authoritarian turn. The whole world is a country. And Poland returns to being Europe.
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December 11, 2023 (changed December 11, 2023 | 10.30pm)
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