The Punch and Judy show
The war between the president and the prime minister has reached new depths. If Newsweek is right in its claim that the gossip about Kwaniewski's alleged affair with a singer is being spread by Miller's men, then we really have gone nuclear. As in the Rywin case, when the prime minister did not report the matter to the public prosecutor nor sue for libel, Miller is again choosing to keep silent rather than sue over such outrageous assertions.
Has the gossip appeared in order to offset the damaging light the Rywin affair is continuing to cast on the prime minister? Is it a classic diversionary ploy of digging something up on the person you believe is trying to oust you?
Don't read the dailies, watch TV or listen to the radio to find out. They are just pretending this is not happening. They did not even bother to cover Kwaniewski's denial last Wednesday. That dementia was, after all, forced on him by the persistence of the rumour. It is an important denial which will sooner or later be tested and should certainly be covered by the media in a normal democratic country.
The trouble is that this is not a normal democratic country. The media are too scared to say boo to a goose. One of the major reasons for why turnout in elections is so low and interest in politics falling like a stone is because the mass media are totally and utterly incapable of explaining the political process and the issues to the public. The electronic media just give the floor to the politicians in a multitude of "talking heads" programmes that bore even hacks like me rigid. Politicians are allowed to dominate current affairs programmes, and the public feels totally alienated and excluded. The feeling that we have here a self-satisfied elite talking to itself permeates every broadcast.
How wrong were all those who believed that things would calm down after Copenhagen! Thanks to the end of the negotiations, the prime minister's personal poll ratings rose, together with those of his party and government. It looked as if this government would try to milk it for all it was worth and hang on for dear life until the cash arrives in 2004.
Unfortunately for Miller, a week is a long time in politics and a month is almost an age. Planning a year ahead in politics is pure science fiction. Faced with growing chaos in the health service, persistent mass unemployment and the lack of economic growth, he knows he has to watch his back.
When you are in a hole, rule number one says that you should stop digging. Unfortunately for themselves and the country, the SLD seems to have forgotten this. It is making diversionary moves to try to counter their lack of achievements on the key bread-and-butter issues. All SLD politicians are making their position even worse:
" In a desperate attempt to keep its rank and file happy, some senior SLD politicians are arguing that once the EU referendum is over it will be possible to reopen the debate on abortion. In a move to make himself attractive to the SLD's rank and file, the Sejm's speaker has gone on record favouring a referendum on abortion. If the SLD, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the non-performance of this government on economic and social issues, turn to abortion, it will repeat the blunder of the early 1990s when its antichurch stance helped to mobilise and radicalise the right.
" Another diversionary ploy aimed at pacifying the SLD electorate is the plan to virtually neuter the National Memorial Institute (IPN) by taking away its prosecuting powers. This is being done for all those voters who, in opinion polls, say that communism was OK. The problem, however, is that this move just confirms that the SLD is totally unwilling to deal with its past. Trying to please voters you hold anyway is usually the way to lose those you will need in future.
"The firing of unpopular ministers, such as Mariusz Łapiński, Wiesław Kaczmarek and
Jacek Piechota, is a much safer bet and is being pursued. However, even here there are snags. Why did it take the prime minister so long to realise they were duffers? What does it say about his judgement about appointing them in the first place? There is a distinct feeling of instability about this government now. Not only does it seem to have lost the confidence of the president, but also the speaker of the Sejm who has thrown into touch both the media bill and the legislation on vignettes. The fact that so much of this government's proposed legislation is proving to be unconstitutional is particularly damaging when we remember that it was the SLD that was the main author of this constitution.
" Grzegorz Kołodko's remarks on the NBP mark a return to hostilities between the government and the Monetary Policy Council. These hostilities will simply draw attention to the mismanagement of economic affairs that this government is guilty of. A government which promised the growth of the SME sector has increased its tax burden, and instead of following up on the liberalisation of the Labour Code, it has gone backwards by making it much more difficult for companies to hire the self-employed on contracts. The list of examples of such totally contradictory policies could fill a book.
In the meantime, the opposition parties are too weak to be able to offer an alternative government. This is why the Punch and Judy show between Kwaniewski and Miller will continue. In the fallout, the economy may go down the plug hole. The real loser in this fight will be the country.
Has the gossip appeared in order to offset the damaging light the Rywin affair is continuing to cast on the prime minister? Is it a classic diversionary ploy of digging something up on the person you believe is trying to oust you?
Don't read the dailies, watch TV or listen to the radio to find out. They are just pretending this is not happening. They did not even bother to cover Kwaniewski's denial last Wednesday. That dementia was, after all, forced on him by the persistence of the rumour. It is an important denial which will sooner or later be tested and should certainly be covered by the media in a normal democratic country.
The trouble is that this is not a normal democratic country. The media are too scared to say boo to a goose. One of the major reasons for why turnout in elections is so low and interest in politics falling like a stone is because the mass media are totally and utterly incapable of explaining the political process and the issues to the public. The electronic media just give the floor to the politicians in a multitude of "talking heads" programmes that bore even hacks like me rigid. Politicians are allowed to dominate current affairs programmes, and the public feels totally alienated and excluded. The feeling that we have here a self-satisfied elite talking to itself permeates every broadcast.
How wrong were all those who believed that things would calm down after Copenhagen! Thanks to the end of the negotiations, the prime minister's personal poll ratings rose, together with those of his party and government. It looked as if this government would try to milk it for all it was worth and hang on for dear life until the cash arrives in 2004.
Unfortunately for Miller, a week is a long time in politics and a month is almost an age. Planning a year ahead in politics is pure science fiction. Faced with growing chaos in the health service, persistent mass unemployment and the lack of economic growth, he knows he has to watch his back.
When you are in a hole, rule number one says that you should stop digging. Unfortunately for themselves and the country, the SLD seems to have forgotten this. It is making diversionary moves to try to counter their lack of achievements on the key bread-and-butter issues. All SLD politicians are making their position even worse:
" In a desperate attempt to keep its rank and file happy, some senior SLD politicians are arguing that once the EU referendum is over it will be possible to reopen the debate on abortion. In a move to make himself attractive to the SLD's rank and file, the Sejm's speaker has gone on record favouring a referendum on abortion. If the SLD, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the non-performance of this government on economic and social issues, turn to abortion, it will repeat the blunder of the early 1990s when its antichurch stance helped to mobilise and radicalise the right.
" Another diversionary ploy aimed at pacifying the SLD electorate is the plan to virtually neuter the National Memorial Institute (IPN) by taking away its prosecuting powers. This is being done for all those voters who, in opinion polls, say that communism was OK. The problem, however, is that this move just confirms that the SLD is totally unwilling to deal with its past. Trying to please voters you hold anyway is usually the way to lose those you will need in future.
"The firing of unpopular ministers, such as Mariusz Łapiński, Wiesław Kaczmarek and
Jacek Piechota, is a much safer bet and is being pursued. However, even here there are snags. Why did it take the prime minister so long to realise they were duffers? What does it say about his judgement about appointing them in the first place? There is a distinct feeling of instability about this government now. Not only does it seem to have lost the confidence of the president, but also the speaker of the Sejm who has thrown into touch both the media bill and the legislation on vignettes. The fact that so much of this government's proposed legislation is proving to be unconstitutional is particularly damaging when we remember that it was the SLD that was the main author of this constitution.
" Grzegorz Kołodko's remarks on the NBP mark a return to hostilities between the government and the Monetary Policy Council. These hostilities will simply draw attention to the mismanagement of economic affairs that this government is guilty of. A government which promised the growth of the SME sector has increased its tax burden, and instead of following up on the liberalisation of the Labour Code, it has gone backwards by making it much more difficult for companies to hire the self-employed on contracts. The list of examples of such totally contradictory policies could fill a book.
In the meantime, the opposition parties are too weak to be able to offer an alternative government. This is why the Punch and Judy show between Kwaniewski and Miller will continue. In the fallout, the economy may go down the plug hole. The real loser in this fight will be the country.
