Pro-accession out of spite
Two weekends ago 60 percent of Poles failed to vote in favor of EU accession. This is not meant in any way to disparage the very real success that the results represent. It would, however, be a mistake to ignore the implications of the fact that the majority of the nation decided to defy the appeals of anyone who is anyone in the country.
In fact, it is precisely the elite's unanimous insistence that the EU is a good thing that brought out resentment in many people. This spiteful attitude goes a long way towards explaining the relatively poor turnout.
Poland was a predominantly agricultural society until very recently. Traditional peasant ways of thinking are still to be found even among city-dwellers. The division into "us," the ordinary folk, and "them," the powerful and the wealthy is a part of that mind-frame.
There is, however, another reason for the general conviction that the country's elite is always plotting against the common man. It is buried very deeply in the nation's collective psyche.
It is often said that Poles love a loser. This idea is the consequence of the image of an innocent victim suffering at the hands of cruel oppressors - an image that is central to the way Poles see themselves as a community. When, in the 19th century, the very name of Poland had been wiped off the map of the world, a curious interpretation of the national disaster was widespread among the intelligentsia: Poland was the "Messiah of the nations." Like Christ, Poland would rise from the dead to redeem the inequities of other nations. This curious blend of mysticism, heterodox Christianity and collective self-pity at its best led to the creation of a body of great, if somewhat esoteric, literature. At its worst, it has served to explain away any national or personal failure.
This interpretation of the nation's history persisted throughout the ages of Russian, German and Communist persecution. But when true independence was regained in 1989, a crucial ingredient of the innocent victim theory disappeared: there was no longer an external force on which to blame the country's shortcomings. That obstacle was overcome by relocating the blame to the political and financial elite.
Many people have come to hate all Polish politicians so much that joining the EU seems a welcome alternative.
It is now only a question of time before Brussels comes to be universally blamed for anything from disappointing economic growth to domestic violence. That is still, however, a thing of the future.
