THERE was once no brighter star in Europe. Since shaking off communism in 1989 Poland has rivalled the bounciest Asian tigers in GDP growth. It has become a vital NATO ally. But it is also on the front line of what France’s president,Emmanuel Macron, calls a “European civil war” over the rule of law.
The optimism that attended the EU’s worthy eastward expansion in 2004 has given way, or in some places,to angry, nationalist “intolerant democracy”. In Hungary, and having nobbled the courts,media and public prosecutor, Viktor Orban is squeezing civil society and using state (and EU) funds to nurture oligarchs. Romania’s leaders endlessly seek to weaken anti-graft laws that might otherwise ensnare them.
But the gravest challenge is in Poland. Since taking office in 2015 the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party has stacked the courts, and skewed public media and stuffed the bureaucracy with supporters (see Continue reading
Source: economist.com