The Reinvention of Poland

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BBC Radio 4 - The Reinvention of Poland

On the road in Poland as a new government tries to push through a political revolution.

Anne McElvoy goes on the road in Poland as Donald Tusk's new government tries to recapture the state and institutions from his political predecessors.

Anne McElvoy goes on the road in Poland in the latest in her series of programmes exploring the waves of change sweeping through Europe. She takes the temperature of a nation still reeling from last year’s political revolution, in which the centrist liberal alliance led by Donald Tusk overturned the populist government of the Law and Justice (PIS) party after eight years in power.

Tusk has pledged to remake Poland as a progressive liberal democracy at the heart of the EU, purging and recapturing institutions, the judiciary and civil society from the ultra-conservative PIS. This while defending Poland’s borders and reasserting its role as Ukraine’s key ally and a buffer on the front line of Europe.  But Poland is deeply divided; Tusk’s narrow victory and recent protests by supporters of the old regime make clear that there will be stiff resistance. The role of the Church – once a buffer against totalitarianism under communism, and now bulwark of deep social conservatism – is crucial. National identity is a strong but complex force in a country which has had to reinvent itself before, having been literally wiped off the map in the 19th century, then carved up by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.

Anne explores Poland’s modern reinvention, talking to Poles about themselves, weaving real stories and testimony with political analysis and her own European expertise and perspective.

Interviewees include Justice Minister Dariusz Mazur, Law and Justice MP Pawel Jablonski, historian Professor Natalia Nowakowska, Law Professor Piotr Bogdanowicz, activists Jakub Kocjan & Joanna Parniewska and commentators Aleksandra Rybinska & Jan Cienski.


Producer: Leala Padmanabhan

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