The moment Poland punctured populism
The Law and Justice Party stole from the communists’ playbook to gain and retain power, explains Jaroslaw Kuisz in The New Politics of Poland. But a surprise election result may prove to be a sign of global change
One of the most satisfying nights during the years I was a journalist covering eastern Europe was on June 4, 1989. I was in Warsaw, at a place favoured by opposition Solidarity activists suitably called the Café Surprise, watching the results come in from the Polish election that became a watershed moment in modern European history.
Despite an electoral system rigged entirely in their favour, a muzzled press spewing government propaganda against their opponents, and possession of all the power of the state for the past four decades, the communists lost in a landslide. When the poll numbers began coming in, opposition leaders were astonished — none had expected even the narrowest of wins, let alone a humiliation of the ruling regime on this scale.
