Journal of Right-Wing Studies

On October 15, Poles will vote in parliamentary elections. At stake will be either the third independent rule of the Law and Justice (PiS, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) party, or the victory of the so-called “democratic opposition” parties running from three separate lists: the Christian Democratic Civic Coalition (KO, Koalicja Obywatelska), the social-democratic New Left (NL, Nowa Lewica), and the centrist Third Way (Trzecia Droga). For the moment, as polls indicate that there is no clear leader in the parliamentary elections, it is possible that, à la Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, which unites the right-wing Likud with several far-right coalition partners, the PiS will need the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) to form a majority for a stable government.

The eight years of independent rule by the PiS is almost a textbook example of the political practice of right-wing illiberal populism. PiS leader and deputy prime minister of the Polish government, Jarosław Kaczyński, announced as early as 2011 that “the day will come when we will have Budapest in Warsaw.” Viktor Orbán’s “know-how” inspired the Polish government led by former prime minister and current member of the European Parliament Beata Szydło, and by acting prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The attack on the division of power, the political takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court, the conflict with the European Union, and the ratting out of LGBTQ+ people and immigrants via the government’s subordinate public media—all these are a veritable “copy and paste” of right-wing Hungary in post-2015 Poland. However, PiS, unlike Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, can boast of a number of positive social reforms, such as a significant increase in the minimum wage, a lower retirement age, and a financial system with a universal cash benefit of PLN 500 for each child under the age of eighteen.

The socioeconomic successes of the PiS government have provided the primary source of political support for Jarosław Kaczyński’s party. These measures helped manage the understandable frustration of those who first lost in the transition from authoritarian socialism to free-market democracy, and then fell victim to neoliberal globalization. At the same time, PiS used the typical methods of right-wing populists to create substitute and false conflicts, claiming, for example, that the quality of public services was threatened by immigrants and refugees from Muslim countries, or that permitting the civil unions of gay and lesbian couples would fracture the national identity of Poles. At the request of PiS and the far-right Confederation, the Constitutional Court restricted women’s right to abortion, fulfilling the political will of the Polish Catholic Church. On the eve of the 2023 elections, human rights and liberal democracy are worse off than when Poland joined the European Union in 2004.

Since 1989, the Polish far right has had only a brief moment in power. In 2006, the League of Polish Families (LPR, Liga Polskich Rodzin), an openly homophobic and anti–European Union grouping, cofounded, with PiS, the government of then prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński, while the person who resurrected the Catholic-nationalist organization All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechopolska), Roman Giertych, became deputy prime minister and education minister. That government fell apart after a few months, and since 2007 the far right has had no real chance to be part of government.

But the situation looks different in 2023 as Confederation politicians may decide who becomes Poland’s prime minister, and some national libertarians may take essential state posts. My analysis here aims to represent the views of the Confederation and its leaders based on sources widely known to the Polish public.

As the name suggests, the Confederation is a collection of different groups. They range from libertarians and extreme nationalists to supporters of the monarchy. The monarchist party is called Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP, Konfederacja Korony Polskiej) and fuses traditionalist Catholicism with Polish nationalism. KKP’s official program announces party members’ “sincere will to submit our private and public lives to the reign of Christ the King of Poland and the protection of His Most Holy Mother, Queen of the Polish Crown.”

The broader far-right Confederation to which KKP belongs does not have a single leader and is managed deliberatively by a council of leaders. In this way, the Confederation can flirt with radicals on its margins without being held collectively responsible for the extreme statements of some of them. One of the leaders is Sławomir Mentzen, chairman of the New Hope party (Nowa Nadzieja). During an electoral convention in 2019, Mentzen said: “[W]e do not want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes, and the European Union.” This was to become the Confederation’s five-point program.

Grzegorz Braun, a member of the monarchist KKP, is one of the two most extreme representatives of the Polish far right. In 2019, on the online TV station wRealu24, known for publishing far-right and xenophobic content, Braun said: “I today advocate the criminalization of homosexual activity as such. . . . The world revolution, mafias, [intelligence] services and lodges, Jews, and Freemasons—let us not be afraid to use these words—treat sodomites as the lost lumpenproletariat of their revolution.” At the Confederation convention, Braun again attacked these targets, saying: “Our children will not be raised and taught tolerance by deviants, they will not! . . . Germans or Jews will not teach us history! . . . Stop sanitary segregation, down with WHO, stop the Ukrainianization of Poland!” Braun was one of two Polish parliamentarians who opposed the Polish Sejm’s recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

A second significant Confederation member of parliament is Janusz Korwin-Mikke, notable for his extreme anti-Ukrainianism. Korwin-Mikke disputed that the Russian military committed genocide in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, suggesting that it may have been a Ukrainian provocation. This influential Confederation politician has tirelessly advocated for good relations with Putin’s Russia. On Twitter (now X), he wrote: “Even if things were terrible in Russia and there was cannibalism there, I would be in favor of good relations with Russia because I am afraid of Ukraine growing in power and want an ally behind its back.” Korwin-Mikke is known as an opponent of women’s voting rights and a supporter of human trafficking. Additionally, he believes that, in some cases, sex with twelve-year-old girls should not be punished.

Poland, like most democratic countries, faces a challenge from the far right. The October 15 elections in Poland may end with the entry into government of politicians with antisemitic, homophobic, and pro-Putin views. Poland belongs to NATO, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe—organizations built on the principles of liberal democracy and human rights. In addition to harming the country’s ties with the European Union, the participation of Confederation politicians in a Polish governing coalition would have a severe impact on Poland’s relations with the US, Israel, and Ukraine. It remains an open question what role the democratic West will play in avoiding a scenario, in Poland, in which Holocaust deniers and supporters of incarcerating non-heteronormative people may take over the functions of deputy prime minister.

Update: December 23, 2023

Poland’s parliamentary elections were a success for pro-democracy parties. The particularly good results for the center-right Third Way determined that PiS lost power. The Polish elections were historic, as turnout reached a record high of nearly 75 percent.

The far-right Confederation achieved a worse result than polls had predicted, however. The Confederation received 7.16 percent of the vote and seated eighteen deputies. In four years’ time the party has gained seven seats in parliament.

Since the beginning of the new term of the Polish Sejm on November 13, the Confederation has responded to the new political reality by hardening its message. In the plenary debates, the Confederation was primarily represented by Grzegorz Braun. He used his typical iconoclastic and xenophobic language. During a parliamentary discussion on the restoration of state funding for in vitro fertilization, Braun said the procedure was like the selection of people in the German Nazi camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In a debate on a vote of confidence for the outgoing prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, Braun said he was responsible for the deaths of “a quarter of a million” Poles during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On December 12, during Hanukkah celebrations in the Sejm, Grzegorz Braun extinguished the candles on a menorah using a fire extinguisher while hitting one of the Jewish organizers. Commenting on his behavior, Braun told reporters gathered at the venue: “There can be no place for acts of racist, tribal, savage Talmudic worship.”

The new government majority is currently in the process of stripping Grzegorz Braun of his immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament, which will allow him to be brought before law enforcement authorities. Braun has also been dismissed from parliamentary committees. In addition, left-wing parliamentarians have asked the Sejm to dismiss the Confederation’s representative, Krzysztof Bosak, from his position as deputy speaker of the Sejm. From the very beginning, the left opposed the presence of a representative of the extreme right in the Sejm presidium.