EPP partners elect a post-communist as president of the Polish Parliament

The Republic of Poland is experiencing a truly surreal moment in its history 36 years after the fall of communism.

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Tusk allied himself with the left to govern after losing the elections

Two years ago, after losing the elections, Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland and President of Platforma Obywatelska (PO), the main Polish partner of the European People's Party (EPP), became Prime Minister thanks to an alliance with the Socialists. Since then, and with the acquiescence of the European Commission presided over by Ursula von der Leyen (of the EPP), Tusk has been undermining the rule of law in a manner very similar to that of the socialist Pedro Sánchez in Spain. In both cases, Von der Leyen has not issued even the slightest criticism against the authoritarian drift of both leaders.

Tusk's coalition chooses a post-communist as marshal of the Sejm

Yesterday, with the support of the Tusk PO, Włodzimierz Czarzasty was elected Marshal (president) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament, with 236 votes in favor, 209 against, and 2 abstentions. Czarzasty is Vice-President of Nowa Lewica (New Left), a socialist coalition that is part of the Party of European Socialists. As I explained here two years ago, Nowa Lewica is a coalition of socialist parties whose main partner is the Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (SLD, Democratic Left Alliance), heir to the single party of the communist dictatorship that disappeared in 1989.

The new marshal was a member of the dictatorship's single party until 1990

Years ago, the SLD website stated the following about Czarzasty: "Member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) between 1983 and 1990." The PZPR, with its Marxist-Leninist ideology and founded in 1948 by Polish communists, was the single party of that dictatorship. Thus, while millions of Poles mobilized in defense of freedom, led by the Catholic trade union Solidarity, Czarzasty supported the party of the communist dictatorship until after its fall in 1989.

Communists one day, social democrats the next

Just as happened in other countries of the former Soviet bloc, as I already explained here six years ago, the PZPR was dissolved at the end of January 1990 and its members immediately formed the Social Democratic Party of the Republic of Poland (SdPR), following the tactic of other single communist parties of suddenly passing themselves off as social democrats. The SdPR was dissolved on April 15, 1999 and on the same day the SLD was founded, made up mostly of former members of the single party of the dictatorship and which obtained 49 seats in the Sejm in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Czarzasty was president of the SLD until its dissolution on June 11, 2021, the same day as the founding of Nowa Lewica. In the 2023 parliamentary elections, with Czarzasty at the helm, Nowa Lewica only won 19 of the 460 seats in the Sejm. Despite her electoral defeat two years ago, Tusk made a pact with this post-communist coalition, granting it four ministries in her cabinet and making one of those four ministers, Krzysztof Gawkowski, deputy prime minister. The post-communists had not been part of the Polish government since 2005, when the four-year term of the coalition government led by Leszek Miller (of the SLD) came to an end. Now, thanks to their Polish partners in the EPP, they also hold the presidency of the Sejm.

Several members of the ruling coalition refused to vote for Czarzasty

The election of Czarzasty as Marshal of the Sejm has generated considerable controversy in Poland. In fact, several members of the ruling coalition voted against him or abstained. This Tuesday, the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, a member of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, declared:

"Today we have a situation in the country where the President of Poland is an anti-communist and former president of the Institute of National Remembrance, and the President of the Sejm is a post-communist."

Nawrocki added: "I think there will come a time when everything that is happening today surrounding the parliamentary majority will finally make Poles realize that we are not on the right track."

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Photo: Efe. Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland and President of Platforma Obywatelska (PO), the main Polish partner of the European People's Party (EPP).