A danger disguised as Law and Justice
Victor Ângelo
I
have known Marzena for more than 15 years. It was shortly after she arrived in
Brussels and started a new life, serving in the homes of the Belgian middle
class. She came from deep Poland, a stone's throw from Belarus - in fact, she
has relatives living in a couple of villages on the other side of the barbed
wire, Poles like herself, but caught up in the post-war border-line scramble by
Stalin's people. Over time, she saw many thousands of other compatriots arrive
in Belgium, who today work in construction, domestic service, factories or in
the many Polish stores that have opened everywhere. The money that these
immigrants regularly transfer to their homeland has been one of the factors in
Poland's economic modernization. The other is linked to the different
advantages that came with the country's entry into the European Union in 2004.
Marzena
is a modest but thoughtful person. She has learned a lot over the years. She
can see the economic progress, how her country has changed since accession. But
she also recognizes that today's Poland is on the wrong track when it comes to
the opening of mentalities and political culture. A part of the ruling class
exploits the nationalism that has kept the country alive throughout history,
amid Germanic, Russian and Scandinavian pressures, and deepens it with the help
of the Catholic church, which continues to weigh heavily in maintaining an
extreme conservatism. There is a holy alliance, it must be said, between the
government led by the Law and Justice party (PiS) and the most backward sectors
of the ecclesiastical structure.
The
government has been in conflict with the European Union for several years,
mainly for reasons having to do with the independence of the justice system,
which has been strongly limited by the political power. This conflict was
recently aggravated by a ruling of the Constitutional Court, which does not
recognize the primacy of European law. This Tuesday, the European Parliament
(EP) heard Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on
the dispute. It was a clash of positions, with it being clear that the EP
supports the European Commission (EC) and expects it to take measures that will
lead Warsaw to change its policy. For now, the Polish Recovery and Resilience
Plan (RRP) - about 24 billion euros in non-repayable funds plus 34 billion in
loans - is waiting for better days before being accepted. There is also the
possibility that the Commission will activate the mechanism that makes the
approval of European funds conditional on respect for EU values. This mechanism
is the most expeditious, since it can be approved by a qualified majority,
without requiring the unanimity of member states. Poland expects to receive
around 121 billion euros in cohesion funds in the coming years, until 2027. In
financial terms, what is at stake is immense. Warsaw, however, is still betting
on a confrontation with the EC.
All
this puts the future of the common project at risk. Poles want to remain in the
EU - 90% of citizens are in favour, including 87% of PiS supporters. The
government itself says and repeats that there is no question of preparing an
exit, a Polexit. They say it is just an assertion that Europe is based on a
collection of nations and not on ever deeper integration. This is a fallacious
argument, for what is at issue is respect for the basic values that unite the
European peoples, and which have been enshrined in Articles 2 and 3 of the EU
Treaty. To allow a Member State to violate these values and remain in the Union
is to offer the adversary the possibility of destroying us by continuing to sit
at our table.
The
Commission must win this battle. The European executive and the other
institutions cannot emerge weakened from such a debate. Now is the time to hear
the voices of the leaders supporting Ursula von der Leyen without ambiguity or
further delay.
(Automatic translation of the opinion piece I published in the Diário de
Notícias, the old and prestigious Lisbon newspaper. Edition dated 22 October 2021)
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