Lurch to the right

last updated 8 January 2015

Warsaw

Poland’s government was criticized throughout Europe this week for signing a pact with two anti-E.U. parties. The governing Law and Justice Party does not hold a majority in parliament, and recruiting allies was the only way it could prevent the opposition Social Democrats from calling early elections. Its new partners are the League of Polish Families, a conservative Catholic party, and the Self-Defense Party, a far-right party of farmers. They will not actually join the government, but have pledged to vote with it. France’s Le Monde was one of many European newspapers to condemn the pact, saying it “bears the stamp of Polish ultraconservatism: a mixture of nationalism, hostility to European integration, and defense of traditional values—peppered with anti-Semitism.”