The presidential elections in Poland are coming soon, which means that it's time for me to bitch about this place (or more exactly the people that reside in it, which science still has not fully been able to describe the behaviorism of) again.
Of course, the Poles, being a classified reaKKKtionary group will cast their votes for the candidate that they (wrongly) believe is the right one, and while most likely the uninspired liberal Trzaskowski will win, this election also sees (so far) a rise in the popularity of a right wing agent of Satan candidate Mentzen (his name is German - that already is an ill omen)
I guess people deciding to caste their vote for the KKKlandidate from KKKonfederacja is bad enough, but currently he has 3rd place in most polls (which are a shit source of info, at least in Poland, but his supporters are loud at least). Like his memes say, he might actually have a higher chance of beating PO's Trzaskowski if he gets to the 2nd turn (which he likely won't). Of course the postulates are the same old rightoid spiel - low taxes, privatize stuff, shit that would never help any common prole (which is funny because common cis male proles are his biggest electorates, followed by teenagers and young adults with delusions of grandeur and entrepreneurial success)
In true Polish fashion there is no real good candidate, maybe Razem's Zandberg who actually has leftist postulates, criticized Israel (uncommon among Polish politics even though the population is like 80% anti-Israel at least), ran the pre-www Polish section of the Marxist Internet Archive as a teenager. But then, Razem is a socdem party through and through - unless Zandberg somehow gets elected and randomly brings back the Polish People's Republic.
His biggest supporters are actually among academic young adults, most of studentoid friends of mine actually vote for him.
Sometimes I wonder what CIA programming Poles went through to just go "jezu komunis" at any leftist postulate and causes them to react towards nazism (speaking of - plenty more nazi stickers around my place recently, being Polish and a nazi has to be a new suicide cult)
tl;dr the Poles have had it too good for long enough.
>>2246004In the big politics barely existent, left-wing parties get at most 4th place spots in most elections. Most of the adult population just votes for whatever opposes current party (thus the PiS-PO duopoly) or go into libertarian or far-right beliefs.
The left itself is mostly carried by urban youth, and even those are split since there are young adult males who think they are funny to vote for far right stuff (actually indoctrinated by memes) or think they have a bright future set for them without taxes and with a successful business.
There are active socialist orgs, there are active anarchists, I'd say the left in this regard is doing better now than it did. But in the minds of general populace it's still a simple equation of left = USSR = bad, strengthened by IdPol (the Poles might lap up idpol harder than any other people)
Trade unions are still pretty small, people don't care about them and probably won't. The only actual left wing union I recognize is IP and they're smaller than big ones like Solidarność which I believe needs no introduction.
Tl;dr it sucks but it could be the Baltic States or Ukraine or something
>>2246021It's kinda funny because a lot of older folks will tell you they miss PRL times (be it out of nostalgia or not, my grandparents always mention how everyone had a job and housing guaranteed)
Meanwhile you also have those born in the late PRL or shortly after it who will vilify it like it's the worst thing ever, simply because the only experience they had were empty shelves caused by mass strikes, logistical breakdown and then the change to kkkapitalism.
I suppose this is why the biggest far right group is male proles aged like 30-55
>>2246049Most of the people I meet are anti-Israel, or at least conscious and condemning of their actions towards Palestinians.
Though some people are anti-Israel for the wrong reasons (just hate the Jews)
And you have some of the happy liberals who are more inclined to like Israel because it’s a wholesome liberal democratic ally
>>2245989>K-ON meme.As somebody that hates the fascist internet slime that took K-ON away from me, there should be more Left-wing K-ON memes.
>…unless Zandberg somehow gets elected and randomly brings back the Polish People's Republic.Hate to tell you this but you're in NATOpia forever or maybe at least until AMOC collapse makes Northern Europe uninhabitable tundra. If he tries, he'll join the ranks of people like Mossadegh, Arbenz, Goulart, etc.
>>2247042I’d say Razem is more on the left with their social policies compared to PiS (socdem vs social liberalism or something)
But the rest is very much about idpol and social policy. PiS is a Christian Democratic Party though and through, hard on conservatism meanwhile Razem is more progressive in that regard
>>2246996Polish nationalists struggle to pick whether to go "those were Piast lands they were always Polish since the 900s" or "those were Polish lands we built Lwów and Wilno and the kresy"
I don't get the Kresy glazing in Poland either. Why the fuck would you want a bunch of swamps with an occasional city back? You got like the 2nd largest German industrial region and an actual coastline in exchange. Free of Germans, too.
>>2245989>Mentzen (his name is Germannot a german name
>>2245995because he was a judeocomunist puppet and as such an embarrassment to the polish people
>>2246004>polish leftthere is none, litterally not a single person
>>2246017they'd get their asiatic asses kicked sooner
>>2246030>a lot of older folks will tell you they miss PRL timesfake news, in all of my extended family only one (numerically: 1) aunt has that notion.
>>2246127there's also a couple million strong jewish diaspora that is vehemently pro-israel
>>2246301there's a couple already
>>2247377>fake news, in all of my extended family only one (numerically: 1) aunt has that notion.in my family most people have that notion, simply different situation. your family will not be likely to miss it if they benefited off buying former state owned housing for cheap and reselling it or if they made any net gain on it.
>there's also a couple million strong jewish diaspora that is vehemently pro-israel??
dude there's like 3 jews left in poland. check most recent census data, there's more buddhists than jews in poland
>>2245989PiS x Razem coalition 2027.
I hate the new guard PiS so fucking much, Czarnek might be even more evil than Mentzen/Bosak.
Zandberg has a lot of momentum in the polls, month over month he doubles his support, he is firmly stepping into 4th place, depending on how catastrophic the last week will be for Mentzen and Nawro he might make it to the podium.
The dynamic between him and other two "leftist" candidates is also a really enjoyable spectacle, paradoxically they mostly get their votes from completely different groups, and don't compete with each other that much.
>Senyszynold (76) grandma and decrepit neoliberal/third-way leftist that became a joke candidate
>Biejat harris-like idpol-left candidate that is in the dysfunctional ruling coalition
<Zandberg tall man that ignores idpol, talks a lot about infrastructure, in opposition, very serious for the most part.
>>2262197Well you are not wrong, the expectation is that the runoff will be a 1v1 between macron-like liberal reactionary or an american style conservative reactionary.
Polish presidential at the end of the day is just a popularity contest, president here is just a professional socialite with veto power.
>>2262219Bread and circuses. And the presidential is one hell of a funny circus.
There are 13 candidates, most of them different over half of them deeply unserious, it's will be a really interesting snapshot of what 60ish% of polish population think about politics. It's a beautiful spectacle.
>>2262229The main issues people have with PRL were how stagnating, piss poor poland was, antitheism of the party (warranted but tactless and criminal at times), and corruption.
After PRL ended, SLD (democratic-left coalition) quickly took power, look at the chart, they were agressively neoliberal, anti-welfare, criminal ("suicide" of Lepper), massively corrupt, allowed for cia torture prisons to run in Poland, people rightfully hate them but in the bounceback after the third-way "left" failed so miserably right-wing talking points made people lean into "anti-communist resistance" historiography, the people who remember SLD are anti-left, most don't remember communism.
The ones that remember communism are old, and don't struggle with the biggest fuckups of capitalism (housing, alienation, gig economy), they see that life is better here now than then, they arent the militant anticommunists.
>>2246301We need a dedicated Eastern Europe (self-hate) thread
God I hate my country's """people""" so fucking much
I seethe with burning hatred of ten thousand suns for this reactionary every-normie-is-full-of-Hitler-particles nazoid shithole
>>2292535Well it's either that or some natcon so I "suppose" it's a victory.
The Polish Communists won't be banned for another government session, that's good I suppose.
>>2292278So you are telling me Poland has a whole 300 people that shouldn't be cleansed by atomic fire?
I am pleasantly surprised.
>>2292002Based. It is a promising sign for a communist if one of their first hates was their own ethnicity.
Why? Because people are (at least) garbage everywhere, and hating yourself before hating foreigners is a healthy necessary (though not sufficient) development. Especially if it is done on the basis of holding people to higher standards.
>Late poll: Nawrocki in lead
Plot twist: Karol Nawrocki has now gone into lead in the late poll by Ipsos, as reported by Polsat.
50.7% for Nawrocki, 49.3% for Trzaskowski.
This is still too close to call, mind.
—
<Late poll plot twist – snap analysis
This remains still too close to call, but that’s a big, big plot twist.
Just to help you understand what’s going on: the late poll is essentially the exit poll, updated with partial results from 50% of polling stations where they conducted the poll.
Some PO lawmakers appearing on TV over the last hour or so kind of implied that was expected as the first polling stations to report are usually smaller and rural, so naturally PiS-leaning, but it will all change again when the larger polling stations report their numbers.
Having said that, that’s a big swing.
We will get another update – a new late, late poll – at about 1am, with some results from 90% of the polling stations that they ran the exit poll at.
>>2293020>a pole is polishstop the press!
>>2262229communism was brought to poland by soviets, it is universally seen as foreign and hostile
>>2293521>Polls show, most Poolish don't see their country as democratic to begin with.[source needed]
>>2293639> refugeesillegal immigrants aren't refugees. it's not 2014 anymore - it's pretty much universally agreed all over europe they are criminals and need to be delt with as such.
>>2293662so true, towarzysz
fuck them commies and refugees
>>2293684the fourth one was more or less a hoppian neo-fascist, the fifth one was center right, sixth one was moderate left.
grim
>>2294288It's not as simple, 60% of poles (100% of 50+ old folks) are caught in the hate spiral between christian solidarist right wing (marching towards maga-style conservatism), and neoliberal center right (ex-liberal on social issues). The christian solidarist right (last 10 years) was taking a role of what socdem parties (rabid polish anticommunism made that impossible) do in normal countries, high employement keynesian policy but fucked up post-covid.
Third place (15%, 40% of young people) is a tiktok candidate, a thatcherite "lets crash this mess but also fuck immigrants and poor leeches" so both major players were both trying to capture this group of voters. Which also lets the hoppian neofash candidate (6%) (the menora+fire estingusiher guy) gain ground because why vote for the cheap imitation where the real guy is on the ballot.
When it comes to the left in Poland. it's completely fucked in the head. SLD (left) was ruling 25 years ago (neoliberalism was hip back then) but atrophied to ~5% support, the other fraction of leftist thought in poland is an alt-left socdems, that also got ~5% of support (30% of young people).
As a sidenote there also is a dead-center (faux-christian, made in a thinktank) centrist party that collapsed from 15% support in the parlimentary to 5%, they were 5th before the two leftists, there also were few 1-2% jokesters (record number of candidates).
The presidential election has a runoff system so the two hates spiral parties got to the runoff and the the electorates of other people split. But president here is mostly a socialite with veto power so it's a great spectacle but not that significant.
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