Keep your eye on the ball
Hats off to the town of Swidnica for boldly organizing the first mock referendum on the key foreign policy challenge facing Poland: membership in the European Union (EU).
Not only did the town's authorities display the courage and organizational savvy to pull the event off, they also garnered the crucial backing of political leaders from around the country, who made the trek west to hash out key problems related to the EU directly with Swidnica citizens. In this Polish heartland, ordinary folks showed that they were ready to tackle the complex issues related to EU integration.
But Swidnica politicians failed in two areas: ensuring the event soared above local political divides and motivating high voter turnout on "referendum Sunday."
On the first point, Swidnica shows how internecine politics can infect and almost ruin the most noble of causes. All major political parties in Poland voice a pro-EU program, but only the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and Freedom Union (UW) played an active part in organizing the preliminary referendum. Blame here falls on all local politicians from all ends of the political spectrum who were unable to surmount deeply embedded but petty differences and keep their eye on the much bigger ball.
Secondly, while the clear majority of voters chose a future with the EU, only 18% of the town's and 14% of the surrounding villages' potential electorate chose to show up on election day. Clearly the "citizens" committee failed to reach beyond the like-minded and spread the word to "citizens" like retired factory worker Czeslaw Sliwakowski from the village of Mokrzeszow. Sliwakowski is not only interested in the EU; he is ready to pave the road for his grandchildren so that they will have a chance to glean the benefits membership might bring. Unfortunately, he only caught wind of the referendum when his local priest mentioned the issue at mass on voting day.
Last week in Poznan, President Aleksander Kwasniewski called for the creation of a "Pact on European Integration," an initiative aimed at placing Poland's bid to join the EU above party divides. While a step in the right direction, if the president were serious about the plan he would have made the announcement with Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek at his side. For those with a short memory, Buzek made a similar proposal in April.
If a truly broad-based, multi-party effort on EU integration is not created soon, all the best intention and efforts in the world might end up being meaningless. And the stakes are great indeed. If Poland doesn't become part of the EU club, it could find itself ending the century in the well-known and unenviable position of an isolated country on a fertile plain between two superpowers.
