People power comes to the fore in every election ~ and
this death-knell to Communism is like never before !
Lech Wałęsa is a
Polish politician and trade-union
activist. He co-founded Solidarity, the
Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983,
and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. Poland is in Central Europe, bordered by Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and
Lithuania. The total area of Poland is
312,679 square kilometres making it the 71st largest country in the world and the 9th
largest in Europe. The establishment of
a Polish state dates back to 966. Its territory was partitioned among Prussia,
the Russian Empire, and Austria. Poland regained its independence (as the
Second Polish Republic) at the end of World War I, in 1918.
Communism
in Poland can trace its origins to early 20th century. During the interwar
period in the Second Polish Republic, some Polish communists formed a party,
the Communist Party of Poland; however, most of its original members and leaders perished during Joseph
Stalin's Great Purge. In 1943, Stalin made efforts to rebuild the Polish
communist party, creating the Union of
Polish Patriots, to become an agent to aid the legitimization of a puppet state
he planned to set up in war-ridden Poland. In recent years, Communism has really
waned.
The parliament of
Poland consists of an upper house – the Senate – and a lower house, the Sejm. The
parliament is without an official name;
Poland's constitution refers only to the Sejm and the Senate. Members of both
houses are elected by popular elections, usually held every four years. Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and
Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015. It was the first European
election since the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993 in which the two
largest parties fielded a female candidate as leader. Official results, announced on 27 October,
gave the conservative Law and Justice Party a thin majority, with 235 of 460 seats
(51 percent).
Now
Daily Mail and other media reports that ‘ the new Polish parliament has no left
wing’ !!!
It is reported that
the weekend election won by Poland's right-wing and anti-migrant Law and
Justice party has also created Europe's most right-wing parliament — one without
a single party that is left of centre on social issues. Gone are all of the
former communists for the first time since communism fell 26 years ago, as well
as a younger generation of politicians focused on women's rights, gay rights
and the environment.
The 2011 election
brought in a transsexual lawmaker, Anna Grodzka, who seemed a striking symbol
of how the country was growing more open and progressive. Grodzka will be
absent from the new parliament while some far-right nationalists will be among
the newcomers. In many ways, Poland has long been deeply conservative: abortion
laws are strict, the country resists green energy and refugees are largely
unwelcome. Still, there has been a growing acceptance among some for gay rights
as Poland comes under greater Western influence.
The expulsion of
the left results from several factors: a deeper social shift and the
unpopularity of some of the left's leaders, including Leszek Miller, a former
communist. Left-wing parties took a combined 11 percent of the vote, split
between two electoral groups which each fell short of a threshold for getting
into the lower house of parliament, the Sejm.
Many commentators,
even some sympathetic to left-wing causes, said ex PM Miller and another
left-wing leader, Janusz Palikot, deserved to be defeated for infighting and
other failures. "Haughtiness, mutual elimination through propaganda, a
lack of ideology patched up with cynicism, Miller's playing on nostalgia for
communist Poland, and Palikot's playing on his own ego, all this has washed
away a conviction in Poles that the left wing is useful," columnist Marek
Beylin wrote in Wednesday's Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Younger Poles on
the left not tied to the communists are also upset by the setback. Despite its
moral conservatism, Law and Justice is left-wing on economic causes, promising
to help the disadvantaged and use the state to even out economic inequalities.
The party promises to lower the retirement age, give cash bonuses for children
and free medication to people over 75. It says it will fund these social
programs with higher taxes on banks and big supermarkets, most of which are
foreign-owned. Modern, a new party led by economist Ryszard Petru, also
supports civic partnerships for gay and straight couples, though it is mainly
focused on economic issues. It got 28 seats.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
29th Oct
2015
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