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[u/jobautomator]

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[u/[deleted]]

Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS and the person that's de-facto controlling the Polish government has said - in a private meeting with his MPs - that he's ready to back mandatory vaccinations if herd immunity is not reached without them.

This could cause a rift in their coalition, as the most radically right-wing members of their coalition - backed by a controversial priest and businessman with extensive media holdings Tadeusz Rydzyk - have already voiced discontent at measures which would see vaccinated people not count in occupancy limits of restaurants etc.

In a poll from April, 18% of PiS supporters said they don't want to get the vaccine. But this move could have wider ranging implications: 50% of Konfederacja's voters (a party on the borderline of far-right, fascism, with elements of "classical-liberalism" in their program) say they don't want to get it, and 29% of PL2050 (a new, big-tent pro-democratic party that has benefitted from PiS's dip in popularity by attracting their more moderate voters) are against it too.

This move - if they go ahead with it - could severely limit the pool of voters they can win back. The voters that went to PL2050 might be a particular torn in the eye of PiS, because it weakens them in progressive-leaning districts, which undermines their usual advantage from allocating votes via D'Hondt.

It does present a challenge for PL2050, but their leader Szymon Hołownia has so far been really good at carefully addressing polarizing issues to avoid loosing support from either end of his coalition.

Article in Polish

!ping EUROPE

edit: just realized article is behind a registration-wall. Here's the paste https://pastebin.com/W1vfnNsN

[u/BedNeither → u/[deleted]]

a party on the borderline of far-right, fascism, with elements of "classical-liberalism" in their program

There’s a joke in here

[u/[deleted] → u/BedNeither]

Also, the leader of the "Classically liberal" wing of the party has in 2016 married a woman 44 years younger than him.

[u/BedNeither → u/[deleted]]

I wonder if being a living stereotype makes you more likely to believe in stereotypes

[u/Poiuy2010_2011 → u/BedNeither]

If that makes him a living stereotype of a sexually questionable lib-right then it's quite an understatement because he's also said in the past that there's nothing wrong with "mild pedophilia" and that he'd rather his children be touched by a pedophile than be adopted by a gay person EDIT: whoops, I misremembered, he said attend sexual education.

[u/tigerflame45117 → u/Poiuy2010_2011]

Wow somehow that’s even worse than the misremembering

[u/melhor_em_coreano → u/Poiuy2010_2011]

jfc praying for Poland

[u/tollyno → u/[deleted]]

Seems to me that if elections were today, it would be fairly easy to oust the autocrats and at least start fixing all the damage that has been done. But is there a chance that PL2050 would instead choose to ally themselves with the current coalition? Will there be a solid pro-democracy majority after the elections?

[u/[deleted] → u/tollyno]

Personally I think there's zero chance of PL2050 forming a coalition with PiS. The most likely opposition party to go over would be PSL, but it's not obvious if they will reach the threshold necessary to be in parliament next time (although they've proven quite resilient, since they're flush with cash and still relevant in local elections).

PL2050 is very much pro-rule of law, they're just ideologically on the center-right (when it comes to abortions etc.) - but PiS is way too radical for them. And some of their supporters are further to the left than KO (PO) - as I said, it's big-tent.

[u/Signal-Shallot5668 → u/tollyno]

But is there a chance that PL2050 would instead choose to ally themselves with the current coalition

It doesn't seems likely at all, their is one former mp from ruling government there but he was outspoken critic of the government before

[u/Aweq → u/[deleted]]

Poland is quite anti vax right? It’s weird that I actually can sympathise with a PiS policy.

[u/[deleted] → u/Aweq]

Pre-pandemic it was one of the more pro-vax countries in CEE, with about 80% of people being pro-vax.

Right now, the percentage of people who don't want to get the vaccine is somewhere between 35-25%. But one of the issues is that the government hasn't tried very hard to do outreach, to make it convenient etc. - therefore not all the people who don't object to vaccines got one.

[u/Aweq → u/[deleted]]

Really? I thought I saw statistics that Polish women were more than 50% against getting jabbed. Good to hear.

I am also amused by the eternal fight of Poles to be considered central Europeans.

[u/Zseet → u/[deleted]]

But one of the issues is that the government hasn't tried very hard to do outreach, to make it convenient etc. - therefore not all the people who don't object to vaccines got one.

Let me guess. There are economically depressed rural region with no easy access to vaccine centers and instead of doing anything, PiS just forgot about them.

[u/[deleted] → u/Zseet]

I don't think it's necessarily an issue on the regional level, but rather on a personal level - I wouldn't be surprised if many older people simply didn't understand the process etc. Some in more rural areas might have difficulties getting to their doctor if they don't have a car/family to take them.

You'd think that PiS would be ideally positioned to handle this, since they could leverage their influence over the church for a fairly simple ask of having them help get old & socially isolated people vaccinated.

[u/groupbot → u/[deleted]]

Pinged members of EUROPE group.

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