The Left constantly whines about Bush driving away European allies, yet, at nearly every turn in the past several years, those more closely aligned with the principles of limited government, lower taxes, open markets, and a defense of liberty abroad have won. Now if we could only get Bush to live up to his own rhetoric this country would be in much better shape.

Poland:

Polish papers are in little doubt that the apparent victory of the centre-right Law and Justice party, the PiS, in the country's first general election since joining the EU was a convincing one.

"PiS beat the Platform," says a headline in the influential Gazeta Wyborcza, referring to the Civic Platform, which seems to have come a close second.

"A radical change of power achieved with record low turnout" is how the paper sums up the result.

The Right, it says, will dominate the new Sejm (parliament).

The outgoing ruling left looks set to see its strength slashed from 217 to about 50 deputies, marking the lowest point since it was created in 1990 by reformed communists.

There was, however, one surprise: the fact that the outgoing ruling party, the former Communist Democratic Left Alliance, appears to have come third.

Beset by a series of corruption scandals, it had been expected to do worse.

"It got 11% of the vote and as many as 50 seats," Gazeta Wyborcza says. "Could this be because President Kwasniewski had campaigned on its behalf?"

This theme is echoed in the weekly Wprost.

"A sense of joy, even triumphalism reigned on Sunday night at the headquarters of the greatest winner among the losers - the Democratic Left Alliance."

What is extremely good news for the U.S. is that the ex-communist government that has been ousted from power was a supporter of the Iraq war. The two incoming right-of-center parties that are expected to rule also support the Iraq war and are Western in orientation. That is to say, alliance with the U.S. is not on the table in Poland, all major parties agree to that--Left and Right.

Here is a run down from the BBC on the two incoming parties' foreign policy stance:

What kind of foreign policy would the two pursue?

Both parties say they want to maintain Poland's close relations with the US and to play an assertive role in the EU.

Both see Russia as a potential strategic threat - and say Poland should seek to diversify its sources of oil and gas.

But while Civic Platform would also like to work closely with Germany, Law and Justice is more prone to nationalist rhetoric.

Here is how the Polish government classifies these two parties:

The Law and Justice Party (PiS) is a right-wing party which cherishes the traditions of independence and derives from the Solidarity movement of the 1980s. PiS represents a right-wing electorate which favours a traditional social order, a free-market economy, a strong and wholesome state, the principle of law and order and a resolute fight against crime and corruption. PiS was created in 2001. The best-known Law and Justice politicians are: Lech Kaczyński, Jarosław Kaczyński, Ludwik Dorn, Zbigniew Wasserman, Wiesław Walendziak, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

The Citizens' Platform (PO) was created in 2001 by Andrzej Olechowski, Donald Tusk, and Maciej Płażyński (then Speaker of the Senate), former members of the UD and AWS parties. The Citizens' Platform is a group which represents the liberal electorate, private entrepreneurs and business circles, as well as all who want a wholesome and robust state based on a free-market economy and the principle of competition. The leaders of Citizens' Platform are: Andrzej Olechowski, Donald Tusk, Paweł Piskorski.

In Poland, in contrast, there was never any doubt as to where oppression came from: Moscow. The Polish Left was never privy to the kind of anti-Americanism that prevails among the Western elite. They were anti-American because their masters in the USSR commanded them to be.

But, maybe there is a better theory floating around out there.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:37 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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