Irish Examiner view: A vote in favour of democracy as Donald Tusk poised to take the helm in Poland
Donald Tusk EPA/JULIEN WARNAND
Donald Tusk may not yet have been installed as the next prime minister of Poland, but the early results from Sunday’s election there indicate he is poised, along with other centrist and moderate parties, to end the rule of one of Europe’s most successful populist right-wing governments.
The Law and Justice party (PiS) has ruled the country for the last eight years and become one of the most successful of its kind in Europe, rolling back democratic norms, curtailing women’s rights, and stifling a free media. But it appears that Sunday’s vote will have major implications not only for Poland, but the wider world as well.
Not alone will it impact on Polish democracy, but it will also affect European unity and the wider effort among western countries to face down Russian aggression.
At a time when far-right parties across Europe have been making steady electoral gains, the apparent Polish shift back towards traditional European democracy is welcome on a number of fronts, not least within the country itself.
With the PiS having exerted its control on the courts and the media, backed severe abortion restrictions, undermined the country’s strong EU links, and targeted LGBT+ rights, Tusk and his cohorts are intent on unravelling much of the damage caused to Poland’s internal governance systems, as well as its international standing.
This was a divisive, dirty, and bitter election campaign which saw some of the largest rallies seen in the country since the restoration of democracy 30 years ago.
Dismissed as a ‘foreign stooge’ by the PiS, Tusk — a former European Council president — has already claimed the election to be a victory for democracy and a rebirth for the country. But the focus, once the results are confirmed, will turn to the country’s PiS-aligned president, Andrzej Duda, who has the prerogative when it comes to offering the first attempt to form a coalition.
Tusk, his supporters, his political allies, and his backers across Europe, the US, and the wider world certainly hope he will be Duda’s choice.
Nobody who was at the DUP conference in Belfast on Saturday — or even the many observers watching events closely — was expecting party leader Jeffrey Donaldson to express a desire to immediately get back to work in Stormont’s power-sharing administration.
After a 20-month Brexit-inspired hiatus that has stalled any effective governance of Northern Ireland, the DUP membership was meeting to listen to the party leader brief them on the progress of talks with the British government over trading arrangements.
It was an occasion when there were obviously going to be no rash predictions about a rush to revive power-sharing and the party leader duly trotted out the usual guff about “fundamental concerns being addressed”.
There were, nevertheless, flickers of light amid the usual opaque oratory which focused largely on new arrangements being capable of commanding the support of both communities and the building of a “truly shared future”.
Donaldson’s assertion that those who feel direct rule from Westminster is the best option for Unionists had to consider that London has, in the past, imposed rules on Northern Ireland “that are not in tune with the needs or wishes of the people,” was a sign of progress.
With schools struggling to pay bills, more than a quarter of the 1.9m population waiting for elective surgeries, a series of crises besetting the PSNI, and environmental concerns mounting, a hands-on government in the North is desperately needed. Delegates were divided on how this impasse will play out, but many seemed realistic that the party will have to rejoin the Stormont administration at some point.
Their leader pretty much soft-signalled as much and even spoke of his “belief” in power-sharing; indeed his assertion that “getting Stormont back” was the best scenario for protecting Northern Ireland’s position, indicated a positivity not seen from within the DUP for nearly two years. The mood for change seems to be upon the DUP and that can only be regarded as good.
Marakatta is the Yolngu word which roughly translates to “treaty”. It was the word conferred by Australians on a referendum that would have given Indigenous Australians a voice in the country’s parliament in the form of an advisory body.
That referendum took place last weekend and while many saw it as an opportunity for Australia to do right by its native peoples after centuries of abuse, neglect and shameful racism, a 60% of voters rejected it.
With some politicians stirring up fears that homeowners would have to hand their land back to Indigenous people the whole debate became one of bitterness and distrust instead of healing the trauma of history.
A debate which should have caused unity and bi-partisanship instead turned into a culture war of misinformation fuelled by a slew of social media conspiracy theories which divided Australian society rather than uniting it.
The referendum had been conceived by Indigenous leaders to address entrenched and growing disadvantages within their communities, but it would appear that Australian society at large felt the failures were of the Indigenous people themselves and not society at large. The outcome is that the wide gap between the Indigenous communities and the Australian public has now been seemingly irrevocably widened.
