Law and Justice Party Triumphs and Gains Ground In Polish Elections

#Breaking: Just in – The Polish nationalists have gathered a bigger majority in the country expanding their power in the country in this new election in #Poland.

— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) October 13, 2019

“Law and Justice has campaigned heavily against Jewish Holocaust restitution claims, leading Jewish leaders to warn that the debate had turned anti-Semitic. In May thousands of Polish nationalists march to the US Embassy to protest US pressure on Poland to compensate Jews…” https://t.co/PXmxq8C1e0

— Kevin MacDonald (@TOOEdit) October 12, 2019

Poland: The right-wing to far-right Konfederacja (NI) with party leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke enters the national parliament Sejm for the first time.

Here’s what the party wants to achieve: https://t.co/PD9fgzgz1y#wybory2019 #poland #PolishElections #KorwinMikke

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) October 13, 2019

Poland, Ipsos exit poll:

Support for right-wing to far-right Konfederacja (NI) in different age groups [years]

18-29: 20.2%
30-39: 8.2%
40-49: 4.3%
50-59: 2.8%
60+: 1.1%#wybory2019 #wybory #PolishElections

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) October 13, 2019

This is good news.

Law and Justice has expanded its support by 6% and increased its parliamentary majority in the Polish elections. The party is known for combining social conservatism with economic populism. A smaller nationalist party is also entering the Polish parliament. Now that Law and Justice has a more commanding majority, it will be able to push through more reforms.

Axios:

“Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party is set to extend its parliamentary majority after coming in first with 43.6% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, according to an exit poll reported by AP.

Why it matters: The right-wing, populist Polish government has clashed with the European Union over issues related to the rule of law, with the EU passing a motion in 2017 censuring Poland for cracking down on judicial independence. While Law and Justice has maintained popularity thanks in part to a generous social welfare system and strong economic growth, the party’s social conservatism and targeting of LGBT people have contributed to an increasingly polarized society. …”

Liberal democracy was on the ballot and lost.

Yascha Mounk is upset that it lost to plain old democracy.

The Atlantic:

“Democracy was on the ballot yesterday in Poland. It suffered a stinging defeat that will have consequences far beyond the country’s borders.

For decades, political scientists regarded Poland as the great success story of the transition from communism to democracy. In no other large country in Central or Eastern Europe had democratic institutions taken such a deep hold, was there such a raucous press, and had civil society flourished to such a remarkable extent. According to a slew of regional experts, democracy in Poland was “consolidated”: Just as in Italy or Canada, one could count on it to remain stable for the foreseeable future. …”

The Family 500+ program sounds like something that we should be doing to privilege and reward the family as an institution. If we tried to do something though like that in this country, it would be denounced as “welfare” and “socialism” and “big government” by True Conservatism which believes single mothers and homosexuals should have equal rights.

The Atlantic:

“The party, known as PiS, its Polish acronym, came to power in 2015 after campaigning on its flagship Family 500+ program, a monthly allowance of 500 zloty (about $125) per child for each kid after the first, or for single children in low-income families. Since the program went into effect, the Gromuls have been collecting 1,000 zloty a month, or nearly half of Poland’s minimum wage. That income will soon double once their daughter is born and their first son is included—the program has now expanded to cover all children. The kids are getting a taste for the high life, they joke, and are clamoring to visit Italy too. …

The populist parties of Eastern Europe are widely viewed from afar as a nasty gang of bigoted nationalists with a thinly veiled penchant for authoritarianism. But critics overlook a key part of their appeal: They have channeled serious money to voters in the name of shoring up the “family values” they say are under siege from secular Europe. These parties, such as PiS and Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, in Hungary, have found electoral success by combining a right-wing vision of society with state largesse. The Family 500+ program in particular, with its catchy title, neat round number, and wide reach, has become a model for other countries in the region, where declining birth rates and immigration of native-born citizens to more prosperous European countries have sparked demographic panic. …

Here in Poland, the program has proved intoxicating for large swaths of the population, one that helped garner PiS a decisive parliamentary victory in elections yesterday, winning over not just conservative Catholics, but an array of more unlikely fans, including leftists who felt that PiS, by favoring a model typically eschewed by right-wing parties, offered a compelling critique of a rigged system that left workers vulnerable to the predations of international and local elites. …”

500 zloty a month?

It sounds like the $1,000 Yang bucks a month.