Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 48th Edition. Freaking out over the Polish election.

Goodness we live in strange times.

Lex Anteinternet: 2023 Elections In Other Countries.

: 

October 16, 2023

Left and center left parties took   248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of the Polish parliament, compared to the 200 taken by the governing Law and Justice party and 12 by a right wing partner.  

The government of Poland will accordingly change in the first European defeat of the king of right wing populism/National Conservatism that most notably emerged in Hungary and recently can be imperfectly argued to have gained ground in several other European countries.  It had made statements about openly following Hungary's lead.  As recently as 2019 it was gaining ground.

And it might still be.  Parliamentary politics are not the same as republican politics. The Law and Justice Party still was the largest vote getter, and the number of votes for it increased.  Effectively, it has 212 seats to 248 seats held by various other opposition parties that cross a political spectrum.  A government still has to be assembled and it will remain a major voice in the parliament.

If you read Twitter, amongst a certain group this is being portrayed as the end of the world, or more particularly Europe.  Now Muslim hoards and liberal sworms will eliminate European civilization from the face of the earth.

For goodness’ sake, no matter what you think of this, this is a pretty closely run election, and the Law & Justice Party has lost the government before.  To at least some degree, it seems some Poles feared it was going down Trump Lane, or more particularly Orvan Lane, towards contempt of democracy itself, and it lost for that reason.