IT IS one of Europe’s shining successes. Alone in the European Union, Poland did not suffer a recession after the financial crisis. Its economy has grown by 33% since 2007, compared with 2% for the euro zone. Its transport and energy infrastructure has been transformed. Poland has been a dependable partner for policymakers in Berlin, Brussels and Washington, DC. Even the French, ever suspicious of the EU’s eastern members, have started to court the country. As president of the European Council, Poland’s former prime minister, Donald Tusk, has become a central figure in European politics.
Yet Poles are fed up. President Bronislaw Komorowski, of the ruling centre-right Civic Platform party, narrowly lost a re-election vote in May. The prime minister, Ewa Kopacz, is heading for a crashing defeat in parliamentary elections in October. The danger for Poles is that, in throwing out a lacklustre government, the country may revert to a narrow, mistrustful populism, forsaking its own impressive gains.
Back to the Kaczynski era?
The new president, Andrzej Duda (pictured), took office this week and Poland’s allies are asking...
from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1EaZbGq
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