The Polish right is fighting again: this time around the media law

The coalition in support of the Polish government, which is dominated by nationalist and far-right forces, It’s collapsing Because of new tensions that have arisen between its constituent parties regarding a controversial media bill that will be voted on on Wednesday in the lower house of the national parliament.

Tensions manifested themselves with the decision of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, of the PiS (PiS, the most important coalition), to “remove” Jaroslav Gowen, leader of the Allied Accordo Party, from the position of Deputy Prime Minister. minister. The government has not yet fallen, but something could happen today, with a vote in Parliament on the law, which is highly coveted by the PiS: it is not really clear whether the thirteen deputies belonging to the agreement will all vote against it, siding with Law party. their leader positions, or if there are splits (the ruling coalition can count on a very narrow majority).

The Polish government is now formed by the alliance between the nationalist Law and Justice Party and the Eurosceptic, with a more liberal stance, and Polonia Solidale, a far-right party, whose leader is the Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro. The bill on which recent tensions have developed would ban companies based outside of them European Economic Area To own majority stakes in the country’s media.

According to Morawiecki, the law aims to prevent the sale of Polish media to investors from Russia, China or various Arab countries. On the other hand, its critics argue that the proposal would be directed above all to strengthening government control of TVN, the national television controlled by the American Discovery Group. In fact, TVN upset the Polish government, which had long become semi-authoritarian, by independently reporting the news.

Gowen, the agreement’s leader, was highly critical of the proposal, because, according to him, it “clearly jeopardizes the principle of freedom of the media” and would put Poland in a confrontation with the United States, which he called “our most important ally for ‘defence.”‘ At the same time, accordion deputies encouraged vote against it.

However, the controversy over the media bill is not the only confrontation that has contributed to creating tension in the alliance.

More recently, Gwen has also criticized the tax policies that were part of the government’s program, which included tax cuts for low- and middle-income people, increases in pensions, more investments in health and financial aid for young families to counteract more taxes on autonomy. Income and deductions for local administrations. Gwen had objected to the proposal, accusing PiS of having become a left-wing populist party.

Among other things, the coalition last year already went into crisis due to the dispute over the law on animal protection, which in fact expressed the fierce inter-party competition for the leadership of the Polish far-right, which in recent years has led Poland To become an illiberal and semi-authoritarian state, collision Several times with the European Union. At the center of that confrontation was Zubro, who tried to present himself as the natural heir to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the most prominent and famous Polish politician, who dominated the Polish right for decades by leading the PiS.

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