Razem supporters in solidarity with Greece. https://www.facebook.com/partiarazem?_rdr=pThere are many indications that we are coming to another turning point in post-1989 Polish politics. Politics loves dichotomies, which is why up until now every qualitative change has been determined by the two dominant camps, whose disputes filled the media and the minds of the electorate. Everyone senses that the current structure is falling apart and that a new one will have to be built to replace it. Tomorrow Poland for sure will be different. It is therefore worthwhile to describe those divisions and disputes, as well as the new political initiatives emerging today and the antagonisms that could crystallize between them.
The initial period after 1989 was characterized by a “post-Communist” divide in Polish politics. From the chaos of the first years of transformation there emerged two camps: post-Communist and post-Solidarity, which traded places in and out of power until the Rywin scandal in 2001. This period ended with the discrediting of the post-Communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the emergence of new political forces, to which the Alliance ceded power in 2005. Up until that point the major dispute among politicians and journalists had concerned the question of lustration and de-Communization broadly conceived. This issue masked other questions (such as abortion and the clericalization of the state), which were de-emphasized as red herrings.
The Rywin scandal and the resultant committee of inquiry, which was closely followed by anyone interested in politics in Poland, brought to light a new “post-Solidarity” divide in Polish politics, led by Donald Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. In accordance with the previous model, they were expected to come to power together in a coalition between their respective parties, PO and PiS, representing the post-Solidarity elite, and continue to trade places with the post-Communists. But the political realities had changed. SLD could not escape becoming marginalized and the new parties came to dominate, establishing between themselves a new line of conflict in national politics.
