The second of my comments on The Times’ article Polish election will not be free and fair, claims European Commission by Bruno Waterfield in Brussels, April 30, 2020.
Poland and other countries of evolved Communism can be described as ‘democracies’ only in the sense of ‘virtual democracy’ or ‘virtual politics’.
There is a good book by Andrew Wilson from the University of London: Virtual Politics, Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World (2005). While the book focuses mainly on Ukraine and Russia, it is applicable also to Poland, and likely to other East-European fake democracies.
Let me quote from the book’s flap:
“This book uncovers the sophisticated techniques of the ‘virtual’ political system used to legitimize post-Soviet regimes: entire fake parties, phantom political rivals and “scarecrow” political opponents. And it exposes the paramount role of the mass media in projecting these creations and falsifying the entire political process.”
Virtual political system, fake parties, falsified politics? This is Poland as well.
When Poland was joining EU in 2004, its flag was raised in Brussels by President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller, both members of the pre-1990 Communist party. Kwaśniewski was a government minister in the 1980s. At that time Miller was chief of a regional committee of the Communist party and the Communist Politburo. Miller is now an MEP.
The current list of MEPs includes e.g. Karol Karski, member of PiS (Law and Justice), who was an activist in the Communist student union, or Danuta Hubner, currently member of the Civic Platform, Communist party member in 1970s and 1980s.
Elections do not make any difference in Poland.
The Solidarity trade union, a fake opposition movement of the 1980s, was created by the Communists themselves.
@LechSBorkowski