IDENTITY CARD OF THE REVIEW
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Title: Polityka
Foundation date: 1957
Domains: politics, international affairs, economics, society, science, culture, sports
Periodicity: Weekly
Copies printed: 340 000
Title: Polityka
Foundation date: 1957
Domains: politics, international affairs, economics, society, science, culture, sports
Periodicity: Weekly
Copies printed: 340 000
Estimated readership: 600 000
Political positioning: centre-to-left, opinion review
Political positioning: centre-to-left, opinion review
ARTICLE
Authors: Mariusz Janicki, WiesBaw WBadyka
Title:« Liga na export» - « Export League ».
Issue:
Polish media record on European issues is hardly impressive. Headlines are made by domestic political scandals whereas technical and complicated legislative work at the European Parliament is considered simply boring.
The atmosphere among politicians is different than 5 years ago. The first Polish MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) had a particular role to play. They felt obliged to convince the ‘old boys club” that they truly belong to Europe. Many of them have built a solid reputation and gained considerable esteem among their Western colleagues, both for their expertise and dedication. In this campaign however, such achievements are often not enough to get a decent (or any) place at the party lists. European experience is redundant when confronted with partisan games. The party leaders establish the lists and they have their own motivations. On one hand, they might decide that a competitor in their own party should be temporarily removed from domestic politics and ‘upgraded” to the European level. On the other hand, some of the faithful soldiers should also be rewarded with 5-year long all inclusive Brussels vacations.
Thus the team is assembled according to domestic and not European standards. This is particularly visible for the main opposition party: the conservative-populist PiS (Law and Justice). Here the main rationale is to send politicians who will not be negotiating or reaching compromises. On the contrary, they will be opposing, defending Polish sovereignty and fighting for Polish dignity.
In this sovereignist – eurosceptic perspective, the ruling centre-right PO (Civic Platform) is subordinated to the pan-European EPP-ED (European Popular Party-European Democrats), the latter pursuing mainly German national goals, which are in obvious contradiction with the Polish national interest. PiS, on the contrary, has itself dominated a small political group (UEN Union for Europe of the Nations) and can therefore remain independent. Its leaders fail to mention that under the rules governing the functioning of the European Parliament, such ‘independence” practically rules out effectiveness and influence on legislative process.
External politics is usually a function of internal politics. When the latter is in chaos, the former cannot be in order. Sadly enough, we are going to export our fears, fights and frustrations. Or hope for voters” rationality.
Agnieszka Cianciara
Find out more :
Nouvelle Europe : ‘Les élections européennes au pays de Mickiewicz“
Warsaw Voice : ‘Race for European Parliament”