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A little over a quarter of a century ago, Europe celebrated the healing of the schism that Communism enforced on it since World War Two, and which produced great tribunes of freedom.
Lech Walesa, the Polish shipyard electrician, climbed over his yard wall in Gdansk to join and then lead a strike in 1980 - lighting the fuse to ignite, 10 years and a period of confinement later, a revolution that couldn't be squashed. He was elected president in 1990.
Vaclav Havel, the Czech writer and dissident who served years in prison for his opposition to the Communist government, emerged as the natural leader of the democrats who articulated the frustration of the country. He was elected president of the still-united Czechoslovakia in 1989.
Jozsef Antall, a descendant of the Hungarian nobility who opposed both the Hungarian fascists and communists, was imprisoned for participating lead the 1956 revolt against the Soviet Union. And he was foremost in the negotiations to end Communist rule in the late 1980s. He survived to be elected prime minister in 1990.
These men were inspirations to their fellow citizens, heroes to the wider democratic world and were thought to be the advance guard of people who would grow and prosper in a Europe eschewing every kind of authoritarianism. Havel could say, with perfect certainty, that the Communists in power had developed in Czechs "a profound distrust of all generalizations, ideological platitudes, clichés, slogans, intellectual stereotypes we are now largely immune to all hypnotic enticements, even of the traditionally persuasive national or nationalistic variety."
It isn't like that now. Poland, largest and most successful of the Central European states has, in the governing Law and Justice Party, a group of politicians driving hard to remold the institutions of the state so that their power withstands all challenge. The government has sought to pack the constitutional court with a majority of its supporters; extended the powers of the intelligence services and put a supporter at their head; and signed into law a measure which puts broadcasting under direct state control.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Law and Justice Party leader, and former prime minister, drives the government's agenda with a steady purpose: to fashion Poland into a state guided by Catholicism, free from foreign influence - whether from the Western European states, or from Russia. rejecting as much of modern liberalism and Western European influence as possible.
In this quest, he sees a model in nearby Hungary. He has a close relationship with Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, huddling with him for six hours of talks on Jan. 6.
Since Orban's election victory in 2010, he has successfully cowed the leftist opposition, suppressed the media, packed the constitutional court with his loyalists, made the electoral system more friendly to his party and clamped down hard on the activities of civil society.
Orban was once a close ally of Jozsef Antall's in bringing democracy to their country. Yet, since his first election victory in 2010, he has successfully cowed the leftist opposition, suppressed the media, packed the constitutional court with his loyalists, made the electoral system more friendly to his party and clamped down hard on the activities of civil society.
Orban and Kaczynski seem to disagree on just one thing. Orban and Russian president Vladimir Putin are mutually admiring: Kaczynski holds Putin's regime responsible for the death of his twin brother Lech, then Poland's president, in a plane crash in Russia.
The Czech Republic isn't authoritarian: but the promise Havel held out for it - to be the heart of Europe, a lighthouse of freedom, civility and diligence - has been frittered away. Its president, Milos Zeman, has appeared drunk several times at televised events, and he joined a virulently anti-Muslim rally in Prague last year. More like Orban than Kaczynski, he's a fan of Putin - not a popular position with those Czechs who remember the Soviet era.
Those, for whom Havel was a hero and a model, despair of a country whose political and business elite, including many media owners, are in and out of each others' pockets. Istvan Leko, editor of the daily Lidove Noviny, told me at a recent talk in Prague that "we did not grasp what was happening. We saw ourselves as on the same side as the new politicians and as Havel; and we wrote about the Communists, and the STB [secret police], and the past Meanwhile the relationships between the politicians and the new business people were being quickly formed and the new time of corruption was beginning."
It's corruption, the scrambling after political power to benefit one's own or allies' business, which corrodes civic behavior and trust. It never seems to be vanquished. Waves of new (or old) politicians come to power on an anti-corruption ticket, and too many of them stay to discover and enjoy the fruits of power. Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned last year with numerous charges of corruption and abuse of office hanging over him. He's not alone, in the former communist world.
These governments, all members of the European Union, feel less and less loyalty to it. What little they had has been strained by the stream of refugees that has flooded the continent. Most of them have followed the early example of Slovakia, and shut their borders. The Germans have threatened legal action to reopen borders, but mass attacks near Cologne's main train station early this week by young men of Middle Eastern appearance have weakened its moral authority. With police and politicians apparently attempting a cover-up, it has raised the level of anger at the mass acceptance of migrants in Germany itself.
In regaining autonomy with the Soviet collapse, the Central Europeans first reached gratefully for Europe and its panoply of rights. Now, they recoil from its responsibilities. Instead, they seek a patriotic spirit impatient of liberal opposition and what they see as immoral or alarming innovation from abroad, such as gay rights.
This is likely to change again. A young Polish friend, working (as so many) in the United Kingdom, told me that "the old voted for Kaczynski: we, the young, didn't vote, and that was a mistake." An opinion poll recently showed 56 percent opposition to some of the Law and Justice government's measures. But they need a new inspiration: and they need jobs. Their provision is the largest task in the presently fading continent.
© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.
9 Comments
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Moonraker
As signed up members of the EU they have to maintain democratic institutions. If they do not - and resiling from that also means supporting corruption and business primacy - they must be kicked out. They can always seek their fortunes with Russia again.
M3M3M3
The issue is a bit more complex. In Poland, the country has been ruled by a corrupt elite (Civic Platform or PO) who's senior members all have ties back to the communist era. So in reality it's already ruled by a sort of stealth dictatorship which is largely invisible to the public. Kaczinski's and PiS are taking drastic steps to dismantle the existing power structures. It's not pretty and probably illegal but it could go either way: real democracy or even more corruption and cronyism.
The other key to understanding this is that Kaczinski's more charasmatic brother (who was very anti-Russian and the president of Poland at the time) was killed in a suspicious plane crash in Russia in 2010. He (and many other Poles) are convinced that he was killed by Russia and the investigation was whitewash by the Civic Platform in Poland.
It's not dissimilar to the situation in Japan from 2009 to 2012 where you had the DPJ controlling the executive after the election but all of the institutions, top civil servants, supreme court judges, NHK and other elites were still loyal to the LDP.
The PiS and Kaczinski are actually staunchly anti-Russian and anti-communist. They want to align themselves even more closely with America.
shonanbb
It is not corrupt governments people should be worried about, it is the Islamification of Europe as a whole which will put them back into the dark ages once again. Good luck Europe.
ironsword
Europe is finished. It will be totally islamified in 30 years. And yet the morons invite their invaders in. No limit to the stupidity of humanity.
1glenn
Europe is the West. How can they lose themselves?
Thunderbird2
Rubbish.
Todd Topolski
The article assumes Europe was somehow not socialist at any point. Socialism itself is a form of aristocracy, there are elites, they control everything through tradition, intimidation, regulation, enforcement and confiscation of wealth. When the old feudal systems of Europe ended, they all became some degree of socialist or a mix of the two. No where did they become totally free countries of free individuals, free economic activity, where the individual is the goal. Europe is basically still feudal socialist and the shift between communist socialism and fascist socialism, with most countries currently in the middle or more toward communism. No where in any country would there be a removal of socialism in favor of individual freedom. So "The West" never really had europe in the first place, in name only, or just enough of "The West" was embedded in socialist europe so they could maintain that middle ground between socialist communism and socialist fascism.
The reality is the political class of old feudal europe, simply became the Communist political class, now the socialist political class but whatever they are called, it is the political class elites of europe, who have maintained their control for centuries and they what we are seeing is that political class doing whatever they can to keep their piece of power or access to money obtained through government.
This is why many of those western governments are letting in the radicalized muslim insurgents hiding in the refugee population. Progressive socialism requires strife, requires crime and fear, they need an underclass and division among people to maintain their power. This is backfiring because in the 21st century, people can independently see the obvious insanity of letting in masses of people with a violent population embedded. The political class of eastern europe, having so recently been under the thumb of the soviets, dont really need to invite in problems, they already have enough control and they know in the end, inviting in masses of invaders, is ultimately a failure.
Illyas
First I want to say that this article has incredibly bad writing. Typos, awkward constructions, repetition, and tortured, comma laden sentences abound. Seriously, is Reuters unable to hire editors anymore?
Secondly, this article is obviously a hit piece by the forces opposing the policies of Poland, Hungary, and other European states that have rejected the EU's suicidal policy on refugees. FOR EXAMPLE: he claims that Poland's newly elected leader: "signed into law a measure which puts broadcasting under direct state control."
While conveniently omitting two things:
state-funded broadcasting under state control, not 'broadcasting', which would imply private and public. This means that Poland's government has control over appointments to the media it funds, which I fail to see a problem with. the previous liberal government in Poland passed a virtually identical lawFinally I just want to say that I see no contradiction between nationalism and democracy. One of the central weaknesses of democracy that is often pointed out is that once the people realize they can simply vote themselves goodies out of the public treasury, the state will become unable to maintain fiscal stability. The quote being:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury."
In this case, what better than nationalism to ensure that the citizenry weighs the benefits of public spending versus the commensurate costs. A nationalist wouldn't fancy a bankrupt nation in the future after all, even if their personal welfare wouldn't be affected.
Akula
Certainly the likes of Poland do not want a bar of Merkel's migration policies but Central Europe suffers from the same problem as its neighbours to the west. Its young people are not producing enough babies, and many have migrated to places like the UK.