Poland lurches to right with election of Law and Justice party

The Guardian ^ | October 25, 2015 | Alex Duval Smith

[SE Mom]

Poland consolidated its rightwing shift on Sunday as exit polls showed voters had handed an absolute majority in its parliamentary election to Law and Justice, a Eurosceptic party that is against immigration, wants family-focused welfare spending and has threatened to ban abortion and in-vitro fertilisation.

[SE Mom]

It may be too late for Germany, but Poland is fighting back!

[sparklite2]

I googled "lurches to the left" and "lurches to the right." Good news. There are 11,000 instances of left-lurching, but 11,500 instances of lurching to the right.
GO LURCH

Go Go Go Go Go Go!!!!

[MUDDOG]

The party promises more welfare spending

At least they got the Muslim invasion right.

[oldplayer]

“LURCHES TO RIGHT?”

How about I write the headline? . . . 1) Poland remains steadfast to national values. or 2) Poland regains sense of direction. or 3) Polish voters reject national suicide.

LURCHES right?! Geez.

Oldplayer

[rrrod]

Have 3 neighbors from Poland..2 couples are now citizens and the other couple are in the process for citizenship.. ALL HATE obama.....They travel back and forth and tell me the whole country hates obama!

[SoFloFreeper]

[Jack Black]

The Guardian is the far-left newspaper in London, thus the article's tone of disapproval and deep worry.

Right means something different in Europe than in the USA. Even though they are the far-right party they want to increase social programs. Interesting.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

This is from the ‘Guardian’. Say no more.

[John S Mosby]

Very significant vote in Poland. They know that socialism, German style is what killed them in the past, and they don’t like it one damn bit. Merkel being actually an East German and therefore not to be trusted.

[SE Mom]

Yes, but they’re at least standing against the invasion from islam.

The Guardian is reliable. Like the NYT’s. One knows what perspective is being promoted.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"a Eurosceptic party that is against immigration, wants family-focused welfare spending and has threatened to ban abortion and in-vitro fertilisation."

Sounds like my dream tam.

BTW I think the emphasis here is not "increase welfare spending," but "focus welfare on intact, normal families, i.e. married mother and father with children.

[Fiddlstix]

[MSF BU]

We had & have those kind of conservatives; George Wallace was the most prominent among them in my lifetime.

[Cronos]

Also, for those sitting outside, note that PiS - Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc is socially and fiscally conservative.

On fiscal matters I think they should be more "small government", but on social matters they are right on the dot:

• No to abortion
• No to gay marriage or "partnerships" even
• No to IVC
• Yes to helping families with kids
• No to Moslems in Poland

Fiscally I more support Korwin, but socially I prefer PiS -- or even better Marek Jurek

Also, note, I'm not Polish, nor of Polish origin and I've lived here for 5 years and I've not seen any sign of this "racism" that the guardian tosses at PiS

[Cronos]

Jack -- fiscally, they are more "state intervention", but not more than the previous imho -- they want to increase taxes on foreign businesses and lower them on domestic ones (if you look around, you'll see most banks and supermarkets in Poland are foreign)

SOCIALLY they are definitely right -- socially conservative. Read my post above

[Cronos]

This was not about socialism v/s capitalism. If anything, on that matter, this new government leans more towards socialism light

on SOCIAL matters, the guardian hates them and calls them homophobic, because PiS says that gay partnership is unthinkable, leave alone gay marriage

The guardian calls them racist as they don't want Moslems in Poland -- but Poles are very friendly to all and if you are Christian, the colour of your skin doesn't matter to them

[ROCKLOBSTER]

This was not about socialism v/s capitalism.

Yeah, in Europe, it's either leftwing Socialism (Communism) or rightwing Socialism (Nazism)

[Cronos]

hi, well, it is increasing welfare spending -- the increases ARE on families yes, but they aren't cutting welfare elsewhere.

Also, Poland already bans abortion except for: a. mother's health/life in danger b. incest/rape c. baby's health

The aim is to cut b and c.

[trebb]

Woo Hoo! I might add the ...ski back to the end of my name (6 letters removed when Dad’s folks arrived at Ellis Island in the late ‘20s).

[Cronos]

No. You're making things way too simplistic -- putting people into communist or nazi buckets

Naziism is a specific form of fascism that was based on race theories -- NO ONE is promoting this in any way in Europe except for fringe parties

The form promoted by PiS is about helping the elderly poor in Poland and for young couples

I am against welfare, but Poland has a unique case due to communism -- well, all ex-communist countries (bar China now) has this problem. They just don't know how to work with banking and other activities in the modern world. For example, when Poland opened up, people didn't understand the concept of marketing/advertisements -- they believed it as the truth!

And, the people who were 40+ in 1990 (collapse of communism), they don't know how to work in this system and they didn't have a chance to save any money, and their state pension (they didn't have any real savings under communism -- banks were theives) is pitiful, not possible to live on that -- we pay something called a ZUS, which is for medical and pension. I consider it a tax as I won't see the money, but I see it as necessary to help the people in their 60s and 70s and above who worked most of their lives under communism with no savings and no idea HOW to save or even an opportunity to save.