My blog

It hurts my heart to see how painfully our Poland has fallen into two incompatible pieces. On both sides we have lost mutual respect, we have become suspicious and distrustful, we look at each other with wolves, we cannot listen to each other, we have replaced arguments with insults, we call each other the worst names, we break off contacts and do not want to know each other.

It is hard to believe, but all this is the work of one man. Old, cynical and hating Poland and Poles.

Although our beautiful Solidarity community, thanks to which we bloodlessly drove out the communists in 1989, slowly lost its strength over the next three decades, Kaczyński managed to smash it to pieces in just a few years.

He has reduced to rubble not only the community, but everything he has touched. And in ways that may seem good for Poland.

Five hundred plus is harmful to Poland because it kills entrepreneurship, despite the fact that there are people who it helps make ends meet. I would support 500 plus and even 1000 plus if this program was directed to the million poorest children, but I do not support it when it is directed to each of the six million children in Poland.

Lowering the retirement age is harmful to Poland because it will leave millions of people with starvation pensions and will destroy our pension system in the future, despite the fact that there are people earning the minimum wage for whom it is a godsend because they will still have the minimum pension, and thanks to earlier retirement, they will be able to earn more. I would support lowering the retirement age if it only applied to a few groups of employees, for example those who work the longest or have the most children, but I do not support it if it applies to everyone, as it were.

The changes in the judiciary are harmful to Poland because they are destroying the independence and impartiality of judges, even though they were supposed to make verdicts more just. I would support the changes in the judiciary if they shortened the duration of trials, but I do not support them if they come down to replacing people with their own and those who are docile to the authorities.

The introduction of a ban on terminating a pregnancy in the event of severe damage to the fetus harms Poland, even though it seemingly protects human life from conception. I support the ban on terminating a pregnancy if its termination is a woman's whim, but I do not support it if she is forced to suffer unjustifiably.

The construction of a central communication port for 40 billion zlotys is harmful to Poland, because a poor country like us cannot afford such an expense, even though this investment will seemingly improve our image and provide work for many people. I would support spending 10 billion on the expansion of the Modlin airport, but I do not support spending astronomical amounts of money on investments of questionable need, in a situation where there are many really necessary needs.

The list could go on for a long time. Everything Kaczyński has done and everything he is doing is harmful to Poland. There is nothing in his actions that could be said to be beneficial to Poland. In short, Kaczyński is a pest.

And that is why anyone who sympathizes, supports or votes for Kaczyński also becomes a pest. And it does not matter here why he does it, what his motivation is. He also harms Poland. For me, without exception, everyone who sympathizes, supports or votes for Kaczyński harms Poland.

I often wonder why they do it. There are of course many reasons, and only one of them I understand. It's called poverty. I understand a single mother raising two children who votes for Kaczyński in the belief that her life will be a little easier thanks to 500 plus. I understand a young couple with a child, living somewhere in the provinces, where there is no work, or where they get pennies for work, who votes for Kaczyński in the belief that thanks to 500 plus their fate will improve at least a little. I understand people who act out of desperation and I sympathize with them. And even though their choices are harmful to Poland, for me they are justified.

Apart from those I feel sorry for, all the rest are pests that I do not understand, cannot justify in any way and for whom I have no respect because they are destroying my country.

But I have a bigger problem with others. And those who say about themselves that they do not vote for Kaczyński.

They say that those who voted for Kaczyński cannot be called pests, because they simply have views that are different from ours, and everyone's views must be respected. I completely disagree with that. With the exception of those I sympathize with, those who voted for Kaczyński do not have views that could be discussed, for which arguments could be found, and Poland is not a country today where equal parties function, which differ only in the path to a bright future. Today, we are ruled by populists who are destroying this country, about whom, just like their voters, it cannot be said that they have views, because it is difficult to consider consent to the destruction of one's own country as a view.

They also say that Kaczyński's voters must be respected. Every person must be respected. My respect for Kaczyński's voters is expressed by the fact that I never tell them what I think about them. And I don't do that for two reasons: first, if I told them what I really think about them, I would lose respect for myself, and second, I simply don't talk to them.

They also say that Kaczyński cannot be condemned so unequivocally, because there are things he did well. They most often mention the Five Hundred Plus program as an argument, which they say has allowed many families to escape poverty and increased the Polish birth rate, as well as the central communication port and the Vistula Spit canal, which will show the world how rich and developing a country we are.

I call them all useful idiots. "Useful" for Kaczyński. They are the ones who help Kaczyński maintain power and it is largely thanks to them that he won his second consecutive election.

However, the greatest problem occurs when we find Kaczyński's voters among our friends or family, among those we love.

My friend has a mother who is a staunch supporter of Kaczyński. She has been trying to convince her to abandon her views for years – so far without success. When the temperature of the conversations with her mother gets too high, and her blood sugar and blood pressure approach alarming levels, my friend changes the subject and postpones further attempts until the next meeting.

In my family, I know a grandmother who forbade her granddaughter from voting for Trzaskowski in the last presidential election and announced that if that happened, she would disinherit her.
Recently, I visited my old school friends after many years. They are educated and wealthy. A limousine with their personal driver picked me up at the airport. On the way to their residence, I had a chat with the driver, who, like me, turned out not to be a PiS voter and who warned me that the hosts had views that were very different from his. I didn't want to believe it, but as it turned out later, he was right. Despite this, we spent a pleasant evening, discussing politics in a civilized way. The most difficult moment of the evening for me was when I learned that Kaczyński was the only politician in Europe who was able to stop the spread of leftism.

Some time ago, during a break in a badminton game with a friend with whom we often play but with whom we have never discussed politics, I allowed myself a vulgar, although very funny joke about Kaczyński. When I finished telling it, my sports partner, instead of a peal of laughter, regaled me with a clenched-teethed: "I think that Jarosław Kaczyński is the best Polish politician."

The hardest moments I experience are when I hear some uncle or aunt at the holiday table praising Kaczyński. Then I suggest drinking vodka and eating a cutlet.