Janusz Niedzwiecki who is a president of the European Council on Democracy and Human Rights, Polish publicist and social activist gave an exclusive interview to Eurasia Diary regarding demonstration in Poland.
Note that thousands of people have joined anti-government demonstrations across Poland, as a divided country marked the 35th anniversary of the imposition of martial law by the then communist regime. Anti-government demonstrators carrying Polish and European flags gathered at the former headquarters of the Polish Communist party and marched to the nearby headquarters of Law and Justice.
Eurasia Dairy: How do you think, why the government is trying to violate media’s rights?
Janusz Niedzwiecki: The actions of the current neoconservative government (Law and Justice Party) are a part of the process of taking control over the media in Poland. The current authorities well remember that they lost the power in 2007; it was mostly because they failed to take control of the media. Therefore, this time when they won the elections last year, taking control over the media has become their main priority. At the beginning, they focused on public media, where they began to change management and release disliked or disobedient journalists. Secondly, they cut off funds for the liberal commercial media, which openly defend the interests of previous Neoliberal government.
The last part of the puzzle is to restrict access to information for all media that criticize the current government, so that those media have to too rely on official government press releases. However, there are more struggles between Neoliberal and Neoconservative ruling elites regarding media rights than the actual attack on freedom of speech. In matters such as the civil war in Ukraine, the war in Syria, etc., Polish mainstream media are totally identical and they duplicate euro-Atlantic propaganda (mostly German and American). At the same time it was the Polish MEP Anna Fotyga, who was the author of the resolution against the Russian media. And even though she is member of the “Law and Justice”, this resolution was supported by all Polish politicians - including those who allegedly are fighting now for the freedom of media in Poland.
Eurasia Diary: In your opinion, if the government continues anti-democratic policies, Poland can face threat of being kicked out of the European Union?
Janusz Niedzwiecki: I do not think that Poland will be punished by being kicked out from the European Union. Firstly, because current conflict over violations of the democratic standards in Poland is heavily exaggerated and instrumented for use in the struggle between the old and current ruling elites. Secondly, it could be a dangerous for the absolute consistency of the European Union itself, which is related with UK BREXIT. Thirdly, The EU officials well know that they don’t need to kick out Poland from the EU for overthrowing the current government – they simply need to hit the Polish economy. This may easily be done by hindering the use of European Funds. Therefore, I believe that if Poland ever meets any EU repercussions, they will be focused on polish economy.
Eurasia Diary: From your viewpoint, why institutions of the European Union are not able to force Polish government to obey EU values and principles?
Janusz Niedzwiecki: The current government is openly Euro sceptic, and in terms of relations with the European Union it opposes any deeper EU integration. For this reason, all the threats and resolutions issued by the European institutions and politicians has no real influence on our government policy and are seen by “Law and Justice” electorate with undisguised approval. Our current government fully realizes American doctrine; it is due to fact that not only Poland, also other Eastern European countries should keep hostile position towards Russia. Polish current government try to permanently block any political rapprochement between Europe and Russia, and the possible transformation of the EU Union into the federal EU State entity.
Eurasia Diary: There has been huge demonstration against government in some cites of Poland. Do you think that Polish people will be able to urge government to stop anti-democratic policies?
Janusz Niedzwiecki: All current protests are stylized into the anti-government protests, but in reality protests are inspired, funded and run by people who associated with the previous ruling camp. The only exception was the women protests against changes in the abortion law that took place this autumn. Until this change, the current government has nothing to fear, because these protests do not involve broad social masses. They should be seen only as like previous ruling elites are mobilizing their supporters and preparing the ground for future elections. At the same time, the current government use the best possible protection against real dissatisfaction of the voters – they launched number of social programs (on an unprecedented scale in our 25 years history). Despite all those staged protests, the actual popularity of this government is bigger than during the last year elections.
Eurasia Diary: According to some news, majorities in Polish nation do not want to see Muslims and other non-polish groups in their country. How do you find reasonable?
Janusz Niedzwiecki: Polish society is reluctant towards Muslims, because Poland is one of the countries that is strongly influenced by American anti-Islamic propaganda that reflect in the sake of the “US war on terror". Inasmuch as, we don't have actual Muslim minority in the country, our society know Muslims mostly from media anti-Islamic propaganda. Another issue is the fact that Poland is a relatively poor country and during the last 10 years 10% of our population immigrated into Western Europe seeking for a job.
For this reason, many Poles believe that our State which failed to ensure its own citizens with social welfare and Poles think that the government have no right to provide such welfare to immigrants. Majorities in Poland consider that Muslim immigrants are seekers of social benefits, not as seekers of jobs. All these emanated from problems of Western Europe that are related with the terrorism and non-integrated Islamic minorities, makes Polish society is strongly against Muslim immigrants.
By Yunis Abdullayev
