A debate entitled “Poland in 2016. What Next?” took place at Collegium Civitas (CC) under the aegis of the Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński Sociology Institute on 31 March. It was attended by the following: Bronisław Komorowski, former president of the Republic of Poland, director of the Centre for Political Practice and CC lecturer; Prof. Jacek Raciborski from the Institute of Sociology at the University of Warsaw; and Konrad Piasecki, editor at RMF FM radio and TVN24 television, lecturer at the CC Journalism Department and the 2015 Dziennikarz Roku [Journalist of the Year] laureate awarded by the monthly Press.
The moderator was Prof. Jadwiga Koralewicz, director of the CC Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński Sociology Institute and Collegium Civitas President.
Attracting considerable interest, the debate was followed by a large audience. It concerned the present and future political situation in Poland from a sociological perspective.
Professor J. Raciborski presented opinion polls and discussed factors associated with changes on the political scene over the last few years. He showed the trend that could be observed in terms of changes of contemporary political parties. He stressed that in 2011, when the ruling party won re-election in the country’s general elections, the turnover of political parties in the Sejm (the lower chamber of parliament) came to 25. Given that 100 indicates a situation where the electorate votes in entirely new parties that never before crossed the minimum election threshold, a turnover of 25 is indeed a substantial figure. In 2015 turnover was about 33, and as Prof. Raciborski pointed out, according to public opinion, everything changed. In reality, only two new parties are currently represented in the Sejm with the Left conspicuous in its absence. The factors presented here, notably the turnover, reveal the level of stability that has marked the Polish political scene for many years.
President B. Komorowski assessed the current state of political practice from the perspective of many years of political activity. The statesman did not hide his concerns over the current problems surrounding the Constitutional Court and the rhetoric pervading the political scene. He pointed out a number of differences between the policies of his administration and those of the current governing party.
The editor K. Piasecki assessed the situation from the position of an independent journalist and focused on how the Polish citizen may feel today. He noted that the political scene today is different to what it was 30 years ago. Piasecki also tackled the subject of the media in shaping the political views of citizens and presented the results of focus groups revealing what the average Pole wanted to hear or see in the media. Topics such as unemployment and poverty are viewed reluctantly unlike the controversial statements and scathing remarks made by some politicians. He stressed that journalists should make the public aware of errors and inconsistencies in the electoral promises of politicians.
The moderator, Professor J. Koralewicz, whose idea it was to hold this debate, summed up the event by stating that citizens bestow much trust on the winning party after an election and that the political future was extremely difficult to foresee. At the end the audience enthusiastically applauded the panellists for their interventions.
Collegium Civitas organizes events of this kind with representatives of all political and academic circles. For information on future debates please check our website at: civitas.edu.pl .