Waking up to 2008
But with equal gravity one could venture that in 2007 Poles realized the error of their ways, rejected anachronism and chose political and economic freedom. Democracy, as a result, was victorious.
The goat has gone
When I think about this passing year, I'm reminded of a fable which I heard in my childhood when a witty Jewish friend of my parents came round:
"Moishe went up to his Rabbi and complained about his difficult domestic situation. There was too little space for him, his children, their spouses and several grandchildren. The noise, the chaos - he couldn't stand it any more. The Rabbi replied: 'Moishe, go buy a goat and take it home with you.' Moishe did what he had been told, but came back after a week and complained to the Rabbi: 'Now that there's a goat, I can't live there any more. It smells, it's dirty, it bleats and what's more the neighbours are laughing at me.' The Rabbi retorted: 'Moishe, fetch the goat and sell it!' After a few days had passed a happy Moishe returned to the Rabbi and said: 'Rabbi, what good advice you gave me! Now without that goat there's peace and quiet and I can relax.'"
In the Poland of 2007, the Kaczyński brothers' Law and Justice (PiS) party and its strange bedfellows - the populists from Self-defence and the nationalists from the League of Polish Families (LPR) - had much in common with the aforementioned goat. Suffice it to say that these political groupings were removed from their place at the top of the government, allowing the majority of Poles and their European neighbours give a sigh of relief. In the New Year we'll be able to pop open a bottle of champagne with as much joy as Moishe felt after he got rid of the goat.
Did it really happen?
When I think about the Poland of 12 months ago, it seems as though it was a bad dream. Coalition member Self-defense's deputies mingled carefree with other parliamentarians while Poland's media buzzed with reports of sex scandals implicating the party's leaders. The Minister of Justice is alleged to have pressured prosecutors carrying out investigations. At the same time, the Minister of Education was preparing closed disciplinary centers for pupils who caused problems in school, while the Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Family and Women's Rights ordered an expert investigation to be made into the sexual orientation of the Teletubbies.
If this had been something from the pages of Orwell, it might even have been funny, but, as a democracy and member of the European Union, Poland's playing host to these events was just distressing.
End of the nightmare
Just a year ago it felt like the nightmare would never end. Fortunately the government fell into its own trap, losing the early parliamentary elections. This happened not because their opponents were strong or better prepared for the campaign. Poles preferred the Civic Platform party and its head, Donald Tusk, not only because they sympathized with it, but largely because they were against the previous coalition.
Poles hoped for a miracle - for a strengthening of the country, for the closing of the chapter of the Kaczyńskis' mandate.
Now, in the post-election reality, the old arguments have faded away, the rhetoric has departed and PM Tusk's government says a lot more about what it intends to do than about with whom and how it intends to settle scores.
Modernized Poles
In the end, this difficult year has turned out to be a very good one for Poles. In some ways it was a landmark year of the same ilk as 1989, when communism started to crumble. Then, just as in 2007, Poles showed that they prefer democracy over dictatorship, that they embrace the European spirit of tolerance over ultra-religious and nationalist isolationism, and that they support a liberally-oriented economy, independent on political meddling.
Poles chose a modern educational model instead of rigorous discipline, and accepted that economic freedom and enrichment are not sins. For the first time they broke away from their martyrdom and recognized the immense socio-economic potential of their country. The government which opened this year, that of the Kaczyński brothers and their coalition partners, had a very positive, unintended influence - Polish society learned the harm a vitriolic, un-European spirit of government can cause. For the New Year I wish everyone to keep this belief alive forever.
Joanna Wóycicka is the former head of the foreign section of the Życie Warszawy and Życie newspapers and the former head of the foreign department at the Polish Press Agency (PAP). j.woycicka@hotmail.com
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