Here are answers for questions issued by Hugo Souza. Mr Souza is a correspondent of Brazilian newspaper "The New Democracy".
How the conservatism of Kaczynski twins were inscribed on the history of
the deep politics and economics transformation that desolated the East
Europe in the last decades?
This is ambiguous question. Kaczynski twins were present in politics since seventies of last century. Of course in PRL (Polish People's Republic) they were part of democratic "illegal" opposition related with Catholic Church. After the the change in 1989 they were present all the time on politic area but without much success till last year. Paradoxically none of the churches present in Poland backed poor people up in medias till new millennium, so religious conservatism of Kaczynskis is not much influenced by economic unsuccessful reforms. They were conservatives long before the system has changed. But one of reasons they were elected was their social economic view so different to pervasive liberal ideology present every day since 1989.
The Kaczynski tell about the "lumpen-liberalism". What would be it?
This term consists of two different words: "lumpen" and "liberalism". "Lump" means impoverished person who is also demoralized and this last meaning is crucial. Lumpen-liberalizm means liberalism which is vulgar, demoralized, devoid of ethics, set up against workers and first-line employees and drived to extremity. Typical postulates are: elastic work relations meaning readiness for provision of work for 24 h a day and seven days a week, none or short maternity, sick, vacation leave. Characteristic statements of lumpen liberalism are: " Polish employee is lazy and only lurks for salary", "it is fair for uneducated or educated people to earn small salaries not enough to support their living, because this kind of salary is established by market". "It is fair not to pay a salary if employer doesn't have money for it". Main representatives of lumpen-liberalism are: CIVIC PLATFORM (Platforma Obywatelska), REAL POLITIC UNION (Unia Polityki Realnej), "Demokraci.pl", DEMOCRATIC LEFT ALLIANCE (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej), Lumpen-liberalism is an extreme cult of free market economy.
Today there is, all around the world, an inclination for the "center" on the
practices and speeches of the left politician. Is this happen also in East
Europe, at general, and in Poland, at particular? Is this tendency
contributed for the several victories of populists politicians? Is this
contributed for a depolitization of people?
In Poland this trend took place much more intense. In last question I said about lumpen-liberalism. Two main left parties (at least by name) - SLD and Social Democratic Party of Poland (Socjaldemokracja Polska - SDPL) are the liberal hard right in economic aspects. I can't tell much how this trend appears outside Poland, but I know (from Czech and Slovak TV), that their most parties are much more social and even socialistic compared to Polish ones. Polish politic area is much distorted toward liberalism. There is no simple division for left and right wing in Poland. There are no typical left parties. Left parties on social aspects (like abortion) are at the same time very liberal in economical sphere. Simultaneously, many of right parties conservative in morality are at the same time pro-social or even socialistic in economics. One of these right parties are: Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) of Kaczynski twins, Samoobrona (Self-defense? Civil Defense?) and League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin).
The problem with "populist" politicians in Poland is that everybody who states that worker needs rest, vacation, decent salary and time for family and for private life is proclaimed by mass-media and liberal parties as "populist". This in particular applies to head of Samoobrona - Andrew Lepper. Currently there are no politician who would have declared social things exceeding aviailable solutions in Western countries.
Is the religion determinate for the politics of Poland?
If you want to establish connection between religion and politics you must go far back to the history. Poland had very aggressive neighbours. There was a time when they made partition of Poland and they were conducting process of denationalisation that is replacing polish culture, language, law with their owns. In that time churches were the mainstay for national awareness, so religion became part of Polish culture and national consciousness. Similar phenomenon took place after WW II, but in that time Catholic church was a support for democratic opposition.
Though, that opposition was not all and always democratic. Some of the organizations were similar to terrorist structures like well-known I.R.A. They were murdering civil people not excluding children and women who simply obeyed the law. This kind of organization was Wolność i Niezawislość (Freedom and Independence). The times after 1989 is quite a different story. There are some ethic values related with religion very fostered in society. There is also quite large group several hundred of thousands of people associated with "Radio of Marry", ultra hard orthodox catholic medium. But influence of catholic church (which is the biggest religious organization in the country) is not as strong as you could think of.
There are rapid changes in morality, especially in sexual one. Nearly all of the young and mature people, even these associated with religious circles (like rosary circle), are not obeying church's teaching on this matter. But Church has influence on decisions made by politicians even those of left lay parties. This is because politicians in the course of their office-working don't care about opinion of voters . They do what they like, not what they declared in their electorial manifestos. They do also liberal anti-worker reforms regardless of what people think of it, regardless what party it is. This is the main reason of getting people low interest on politics. There is one very important issue you must take into consideration. Liberal reforms, except few biggest urban centers, didn't succeed. Poland is a country where predominant places are small towns and villages counting a dozen or so thousand of inhabitants.
Much more influence present quasi-political organizations established in early 90ties to popularize liberal outlook. Belong to them Centre of A. Smith and "Institute" for studying of free market economy. They're present in every public media, their views are authoritative and taken into consideration when political, economical and social decisions are made.
How can the adhesion for the European Union contribute to overcome the
problems of the countries of East Europe?
This is very complex matter. The main benefit of adhesion to EU is possibility of working abroad. This issue is important especially for Poland with very high rate of unemployment and salaries for the most part not efficiently supporting living. Since accession of Poland nearly 2 millions of people emigrated to UK, Germany, Spain, Ireland and other countries looking for a job. It's almost 1/7 of all working force. Other benefits regard to enterprises (larger market). Infrastructural investments are difficult question, because building roads, sewage treatment plants is in one way good for economy and environment but on the other hand it is a high burden in expenses for maintenance for households' and country's budget.
How did the press of Poland consolidate after 1989? Was there an
enthusiastic adhesion and without criticisms for the principles of the
economic liberalism?
Poland is the worst case scenario. Polish media and press were overtaken by foreign investors. This results in complete lack of pluralism on economic issues. It may seem very strange, but ideological monopoly is much tighten than it was in socialist times before 1989. The only available, "due" idea is liberalism. Since 1990 there was no single non-political television or radio show where social economic followers could produces their views. The only non-liberal newspaper with state wide market is "Trybuna". Though there are some weeklies on the market, but exist on margin. Well, the word "is" is out of date. Few weeks ago "Trybuna" has been overtaken by SLD, and journalists with social views were dismissed from work.
Is there a organized resistance of the Poland people able to confront the
exploration, the people impoverishment and the business mind of politic
elite?
Yes, there are some. But these organizations are weak. Even labour unions are diminishing and ratio of workers belonging to unions is the lowest in the whole Europe. This is due lack of public and non-public media where these activists could present own views without being mocked. The only space where they are available is Internet. These are examples of such organizations, groups of activists, independent journalists:
Above interview was conducted in July of 2006 via e-mail.
Issued on home web page: 6th August, 2006