IN THE DEFENSE OF THE DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY OF LAW

KRZYSZTOF SZCZERSKI

After five years of the government of the present coalition, Poland, as a country got into a crisis which comprises all elements of the constitutional definition of our country

Many issues which are happening around us, and which we subconsciously evaluate as unbeneficial, can be summarized up in one sentence: Polish country seems less and less capable and more and more distant from the needs of individual citizens. Sometimes we feel that it realizes its purposes and undertakes actions not in the public interest but on behalf of narrow particular groups. This is the way in which we can describe the crisis of our country, bringing painful consequences to us both in ideological issues and in the practical ones. The constitution of the Polish Republic in the article 2 defines the character of our country as a democratic country of law, realising the principles of the social justice. Do we feel that we live in this kind of country?

Why the country?

The country is a special value for Poles. However, our history is so unusual that we can say about the country in these categories – not only as about an instrument of group action, but also as a value connected with devoting oneself and sacrifice, being a testimony of our freedom and the national identity.

Therefore we speak about the country in Poland from two perspectives. Firstly, - Polish Republic is the common welfare of Poles and due to this, it requires care and civic engagement from us. Secondly – we should speak about the country as a group of institutions which are established to realize the Polish national interest, secure law and execute civic duties. The country understood in this way is subjected to the evaluation from the perspective about its effectiveness, capability and efficiency.

Poles must feel that they ‘have their country’, that is, that the country supports them in realizing their ambitions, guarantees the existence of the common welfare according to the principle of solidarity, gives the sense of inner and outer security, enters where there is a sense of helplessness, exclusion or injustice. This is just a democratic country of law. It is governed by free and safe citizens, there is law, justice, development and social law and order are guaranteed.

What should the Polish Republic be defended against?

After five years of ruling by the present coalition, Poland, as a country got into a crisis which comprises all elements of the constitutional definition of our country. According to bigger and bigger part of Poles, the matters in our country are not going into the right direction.

We see a clear crisis of democracy understood as a system in which there are equal rights for all citizens, an open public debate of equal rights, citizens have an access to information about the action of the authority, there is freedom of speech and freedom of manifesting one’s political and social beliefs. The last years brought a clear regress in all these dimensions. The president submitted a novelisation of an act about meetings which makes it difficult to organize meetings, the governmental coalition limited the freedom of information, there is a fight against pluralism in media, limiting the access of citizens to the Television ‘Trwam’ – examples can be multiplied…

The situation is accompanied by a problem of a weaker and weaker country which is fainting in a strong grip of groups of interest and various local and central coterie. Moreover, we all notice how the country is being liquidated in our eyes, understood as a group of institutions established to help citizens and guaranteeing them realising their rights. Only this year about 3 thousand schools were closed down, as well as hundred of police stations, the liquidation of district courts has been announced in smaller towns, railway connections are being closed down, as well as libraries, health service is getting into bankruptcy, programs of a fight against unemployment are not financed. And, paradoxically, this weaker and weaker country costs us more and more – the public debt is growing. So, we are dealing with a double crisis of the country – it is functioning in a worse and worse way and it is robbing us of more and more money. We are feeling more and more often lonely because of the withdrawing country which expects us to be resourceful and to be somehow successful. But, unfortunately, an individual citizen is facing more and more often the local systems of interests with which he cannot cope without a support and arbitration from the state.

The third dimension of the problems of the Polish Republic is a collapse of legal culture in Poland. The law is falling under blows, which are given by politicians from the authority camp. It is so because the principle of work of the present government is acting ‘without law’ – by political instructions, unclear inner procedures or even without them. It does not happen accidentally. The purpose of this action is the eagerness of omitting legal responsibility for one’s actions.

We see it perfectly on the tragic example- the tragedy of Smoleńsk. The law in Poland is executed in a selective way which is proven by the scandal of Amber Gold. It causes the situation when Poles can have a sense of the lack of justice and the absence of the country of law. The law is in the crisis also because of thoughtless passing a regulation to the institution of the European Union. We can see more and more often that the government of Donald Tusk within the rule of ‘floating in the main trend’ agrees on subjecting Polish public finances to the supervision from European institutions, submits many matters which are taking place in our country, to outer regulations, also in the range of the purposes of acting by the country, introduces terms into the Polish language, being sometimes quite incomprehensible on the ground of the Polish language of translating foreign terms.

What to do?

Assuming serious diagnosis, we established a special Parliamentary Group so the Defence of Democratic Country of Law in the group of parliamentarians of the Law and Justice party, in order to claim for fulfilling these writings of the Polish basic act.

We count on the cooperation with everybody who care about the welfare of the Polish Republic. We want to point out both to the problems of contemporary Poland and the methods of overcoming the crisis of our country.

Let’s joint our strengths for the sake of our common welfare.

(AA)

"Niedziela" 38/2012

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl