Poland’s Iron Consensus
Poland's recent elections cemented right-wing dominance and the neoliberal trajectory of the past two decades. Can the Left recover?
The new Polish parliament represents a full spectrum of opinion — from the liberal right to the populist right to the ultra-conservative right.
The relatively monolithic composition is hardly a surprise. With a solid right-wing electoral consensus before the October 25 elections, the Right’s strong showing just signaled that its hegemony is firmly intact. The ultra-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) won an outright majority of seats, replacing the center-right Citizen’s Platform (PO), which came in second.
Meanwhile, the compromised social-democratic post-Communists and the young, new left were completely shut out. If the Polish left is to revive itself and break today’s iron consensus, it must learn from this election and the past decade of right-wing rule.
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