6. Andrzej Duda
Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of
Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president,
Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm)
from 2011 to 2014 and the European Parliament from 2014 to
2015.
Andrzej Duda was the presidential candidate for the Law and
Justice party (PiS), during the 2015 presidential election in
May 2015. In the first round of voting, Andrzej Duda received
5,179,092 votes – 34.76% of valid votes. In the second round
of voting, Andrzej Duda received 51.55% of the vote, beating
the incumbent president Bronisław Komorowski, who
received 48.45% of the vote. On 26 May 2015, Andrzej Duda
resigned his party membership as the president-elect. On 24
October 2019 he received the official support from PiS ahead
of his re-election campaign in 2020. He was re-elected in the
2020 presidential election with 10,440,648 votes - 51.03% of
valid votes (which is a narrow margin).
9. Democracy
Is a form of government in which the people have the
authority to choose their governing legislation. Who
people are and how authority is shared among them
are core issues for democratic theory, development
and constitution. Some cornerstones of these issues
are freedom of assembly and speech, inclusiveness
and equality, membership, consent, voting, right to
life and minority rights.
12. The speech begins by praising the custom
of the public funeral for the dead, but
criticises the inclusion of the speech,
arguing that the "reputations of many
brave men" should "not be imperilled in
the mouth of a single individual". Pericles
argues that the speaker of the oration has
the impossible task of satisfying the
associates of the dead, who would wish
that their deeds be magnified, while
everyone else might feel jealous and
suspect exaggeration.
He praised Athens for its attributes that
stood out amongst their neighbours such
as its democracy when he elaborates that
trust is justly placed on the citizens rather
than relying only on the system and the
policy of the city.
13. 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis
The Polish Constitutional Court crisis of 2015 is a political conflict which
began in Poland in October 2015 with the appointment of five Constitutional
Tribunal judges by the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) party. As
of 20 December 2017, the crisis had, according to the European Commission,
extended to include "13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice
system in Poland". The Constitutional Tribunal changes included the
replacement of three judges whose terms were not due to expire until after
the first possible date of meeting of the new parliament and two judges
whose terms were not due to expire until after the last possible date of
meeting of the new parliament. According to the Polish law, judges of the
Constitutional Tribunal are to be elected by the parliament which is sitting
when the terms of the previous judges expire.
14. A pro-government Law and
Justice rally in support of the
new Constitutional Tribunal
legislation, 13 December 2015
100 % Democratic system
The Duda Era
15. Civic Platform was predicted to lose the upcoming elections. After the Law
and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) party won the parliamentary
election, it made its own appointments to the court, arguing that the
previous appointments of the five judges by PO were unconstitutional. In
December, PiS changed the court's decision-making power by prescribing a
two-thirds majority vote and mandatory participation of at least 13 of the 15
judges on the Constitutional Tribunal. The appointments and amendments
caused domestic protests and counter-protests in late December and early
January; one of the most significant outcomes was the creation of the
Committee for the Defence of Democracy protest movement. The law
changes were criticized by European Commission as threatening the rule of
law and the human rights of Polish citizens.
Threat the rule of law and the human rights of Polish citizens
16. A Committee for the Defence of Democracy protest in Warsaw against Poland's new government, 12 December 2015
On 12 December, protests organised
by the Committee for the Defence of
Democracy were joined by a crowd
of supporters (estimated at 50,000 by
the event organisers and 17,000-
20,000 according to the official
police report) in Warsaw. The next
day, pro-government supporters
rallied in the capital (estimated at
80,000 by the event organisers and
40,000-45,000 based on the official
police report).
Protests organised
17. International reaction
On 15 December 2015, Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, described the
political situation in Poland as dramatic, with the latest actions of the Polish government
having "characteristics of a coup". Schulz explicitly refused to withdraw this appraisal after
protests by the Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło and Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold
Waszczykowski. On 10 January 2016, Schulz was quoted as describing the situation in
Poland as a "Putinisation" of European politics; and he was backed by Viviane Reding, who
complained about attacks on the public and private media in line with "the Putin-Orbán-
Kaczynski-Logic".
The European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans wrote in a letter to Poland's
ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs before Christmas, that the EU's executive body
"attaches great importance to preventing the emergence of situations whereby the rule of
law in (a) member state could be called into question", and that he "would expect that this
law is not finally adopted or at least not put into force until all questions regarding the
impact of this law on the independence and the functioning of the Constitutional Tribunal
have been fully and properly assessed
18. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo vowed not to bow
to German pressure, saying "these attacks are
intended to weaken us, trying to show us that
we should agree to everything just like our
predecessors did". While German-Polish
relations are important, Szydlo pointed out
that they must be based on "partnership, not
dominance, which our neighbour sometimes
tries to exert"
Prime Minister Beata Szydlo
19. In response to German calls for
sanctions on Poland, Law and Justice
MP Stanislaw Pieta responded, "The
people who elected Hitler of their own
free will, those who bowed before
Stalin (...) want to instruct us", "who
today cannot provide safety to their
own people", "cannot deal with Islamic
terrorism", "They want to give us
lessons? Let them not be ridiculous
Stanislaw Pieta responded ridiculous mixing in Adolf Hitler
20. Pawel Kukiz, the leader of the opposition party
Kukiz'15, the third largest party in Poland,
stated in reaction to Martin Schulz, "You
should pay more attention to democracy in
your own country. Because if—God forbid—
another Hitler were to appear in your country
and lead with him those several million
"immigrants" that you are planning, then I
suspect the SS will look like the Salvation
Army in comparison. I apologise for such a
brutal statement, but the Nazis murdered my
grandfather in Auschwitz, and I don't want
their grandchildren to teach me lessons about
democracy.
Pawel Kukiz do not understand
21. Ryszard Terlecki, Polish politician and a deputy chair of Law and Justice
Ryszard Iwon Terlecki (born
September 2, 1949) is a Polish
politician, the Parliamentary
Caucus Head of the Law and
Justice party. Terlecki, a historian
and professor of humanities,
lectures at the Pontifical
University of John Paul II. He is a
Member of the Sejm, serving
since 2007.
Law and Justice's main support
(dark blue) is concentrated in
the south-east of the country
(former Russian Partition and
Austrian Partition), results of the
2015 Polish parliamentary
election
The Russian Partition (sometimes called Russian Poland) strong suport
Prawo i Sprawiedliwość
22. Yes PiS love
Protection
Soft Euroscepticism is support for the existence of, and membership of, a form of European Union, but with
opposition to specific EU policies
23. Family policies similar to the
Nazi Party (Pro- have more
children)
The party strongly promotes
itself as a pro-family party and
encourages married couples to
have more children. Prior to
2005 elections, it promised to
build 3 million inexpensive
housing units as a way to help
young couples start a family.
Once in government, it passed
legislation lengthening parental
leaves.
Yes more children
24. Duda supports the government's popular and generous welfare scheme, symbolised by the
500+ programme, under which families receive 500 zloty (£100; €110; $125) per month for
each child until the age of 18.
Many Polish families have been lifted out of poverty as a result of the government's
policies, and, for the first time since the end of communism in 1989, feel there is a party that
cares about their needs.
This is especially true in villages and small towns, where President Duda won an absolute
majority of votes in the first round of the election two weeks ago.
On the other hand, he has vowed to protect Polish families from what he calls an imported
"LGBT ideology" that is aggressively trying to sexualise Polish children.
25. President Duda supports the government's legislative changes to take
greater control over independent institutions, most prominently the public
media and judiciary.
But in 2017 the European Commission took the unusual step of launching a
rule-of-law case against Poland, accusing PiS of undermining basic EU
values - a procedure that could lead to Poland's EU voting rights being
suspended.
PiS may want to use Mr Duda's victory to pursue greater political control of
local government and the private media. But passing legislation to limit
foreign ownership of critical private media is difficult under EU rules.
Duda want to control the Media
26. Gay rights
LGBT ideology free zones in Poland (red) as of January 2020.
The party opposes LGBT rights, in particular same-sex
marriages and any other form of legal recognition of
same-sex couples.
On 21 September 2005, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński
said that "homosexuals should not be isolated,
however they should not be school teachers for
example. Active homosexuals surely not, in any case",
but that homosexuals "should not be discriminated
otherwise". He has also stated, "The affirmation of
homosexuality will lead to the downfall of civilization.
We can't agree to it". Lech Kaczynski, while mayor of
Warsaw, refused authorization for a gay pride march;
declaring that it would be obscene and offensive to
other people's religious beliefs. A Warsaw court later
ruled that Kaczynski's actions were illegal. Kaczyński
was quoted as saying, "I am not willing to meet
perverts."
27. In 2016 Beata Szydło's government disbanded the Council for the
Prevention of Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance, an
advisory body set up in 2011 by then-Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The
council monitored, advised and coordinated government action against
racism, discrimination and hate crime.
The local towns, cities, and Voivodeship sejmiks have declared their
respective regions as LGBT ideology-free zone with the encouragement of
the ruling PiS.
Polish President Andrzej Duda described the LGBT movement as "a foreign
ideology". During his 2020 successful election campaign, he pledged he
would ban teaching about LGBT issues in schools and he proposed
changing the constitution to ban LGBT couples from adopting children.
PiS = Xenofobes and Homofobes
28. PiS opposed the quota system for mass relocation of
immigrants proposed by the European Commission
to address the 2015 European migrant crisis. This
contrasted with the stance of their main political
opponents, the Civic Platform, which have signed up
to the Commission's proposal. Consequently, in the
campaign leading to the 2015 Polish parliamentary
election, PiS adopted the discourse typical of the
populist-right, linking national security with
immigration. Following the election, PiS sometimes
utilised Islamophobic rhetoric to rally its supporters.
Joachim Brudziński stated during the pro-party rally
in Siedlce; "if not for us (PiS), they (Muslims) would
have built mosques in here (Poland)."
PiS = Islamaphobia (is the fear, hatred of, or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims generally,)
29. Citizens of Poland
The Citizens of Poland (Polish: Obywatele RP,
verbatim Citizens of the Republic of Poland, ORP) is
an informal civic movement in Poland engaged in
pro-democracy actions and anti-fascist
movement, opposed to the actions of the
government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Citizens of Poland practice non-violent civil
disobedience.
Citizens of Poland organize protests against monthly
gatherings lead by Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of
the Law and Justice party, ostensibly to commemorate
the victims of the Smoleńsk airplane catastrophe,
protesting against the claim it was a political
assassination promoted during these meetings.
30. Committee for the Defence of Democracy
Is a Polish-born civic organization and NGO promoting European values,
especially democracy, rule of law and human rights, founded in November
2015 by a group of citizens including Mateusz Kijowski, as a result of, and
triggered by, the Polish constitutional crisis, 2015. The organization is
independent of any political parties and has declared that it has no intention
to transform into one, but according to the World Socialist Web Site, its
events and actions are supported by the liberal opposition including the
Modern (.N) and Civic Platform (PO) parties. It is opposed to the actions of
the government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
31. Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life or
any form of health is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged.
In 2016, with proposed legislation to completely outlaw abortion, 30,000
women went on strike and marched in cities across the country to protest the
legislation, leading high-ranking politicians to distance themselves from the
proposed law. Just three days after the strike, lawmakers voted against the
new law.
Poland is one of the few countries in the world to outlaw abortion after
decades of liberal legislation (during Communist rule). Polish women often
seek abortion in neighboring countries due to the strict restraints in their
own country.
Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, along with a
group of other traditionally Catholic countries of the region (Malta, San
Marino, Liechtenstein, Vatican, Monaco and Andorra)
No free Abortion in Poland
32. free moderately free noticeable problems flawed democracy
Freedom in the World – Economic - Press freedom – Democrazy index
Data of press freedom ranking 2020 Poland place 62
Press freedom
Place 62
