A report by US think-tank Hudson Institute has criticised Poland’s centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk for governing in an autocratic manner.
The piece, published on February 17 and written by Matthew Boyse and Peter Doran – titled When Democrats govern undemocratically: The case of Poland – claimed the administration’s stance disregarded the rule of law and warned that could weaken Poland’s alliance with the US.
The authors argued that the government of ex-US president Joe Biden, along with the European Commission and much of the mainstream media, had “accepted the [US President Donald] Tusk narrative uncritically and adopted its language”.
They said the Polish case posed important questions about the European Commission’s interpretation of democracy, how much control the European Union should have over member states’ judicial arrangements and the primacy of EU law over national law and constitutions.
The report accused the EU of being selective in singling out Polish opposition Conservative (PiS) for “particular opprobrium and punishment, and has not often pursued similar issues with other member states to the same degree.”
It argued that “the demise of Polish democracy” during the previous PiS government was an “exaggerated” thesis as shown by the fact that there was a smooth transfer of power after the 2023 parliamentary elections won by Tusk (Civic Platform – PO) .
According to the report, “since taking office the Tusk government has been taking dubious steps under the guise of ‘restoring democracy’, many of which bear close resemblance to those of which it accused the PiS government”.
The authors claimed that, “since taking office in December 2023, the Tusk government has embarked upon a campaign of lawfare and criminalisation of political differences, the goal of which is to ensure PiS never again represents a serious challenge to its power”.
They also accused the current government of cutting the funding to the PiS and targeting its politicians with criminal indictments and detentions aimed at extracting confessions and instilling fear. They claimed purges of ambassadors and prosecutors appointed during PiS’ time in office had occurred.
The report also stated that the centre-left government had refused to accept verdicts of the courts, questioned the legitimacy of those it disapproved of and attempted a wholesale ousting among the ranks of the judiciary.
Finally, it contended that Tusk’s highly-critical view of Trump and the prime minister’s attempts to destroy PiS could strain Polish-US links. That was, it said, because the Trump administration had built good relations with PiS and the Conservative president Andrzej Duda.
“Further attempts by the Tusk government to try to destroy the PiS will be noticed, which could cause it to lose influence in Washington to the detriment of Poland’s national interests and prestige as well as the bilateral relationship”, claimed the authors.
They concluded that Poland needed the alliance with the US and that the PiS played an important part in that.
“Poland benefits from a strong opposition and the PiS represents a very substantial part of the electorate that buttresses the country’s national security goals and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation at a time of unprecedented challenges to the European security order and intensifying great power competition,” they said.
The Hudson Institute is a Republican-leaning group founded in 1961, whose experts included former British cabinet minister Tom Tugendhat and former US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, a candidate in the last Republican presidential primaries.
