{"id":7030,"date":"2023-10-21T13:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=longreads&p=7030"},"modified":"2023-10-21T13:35:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T10:35:01","slug":"polish-election-leaves-belarusian-propaganda-confused","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/7030\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish election leaves Belarusian propaganda confused"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Via\u010des\u0142a\u016d Kora\u015bcie\u0144<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland\u2019s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party won the October 15 parliamentary election with 35.38 percent of the vote. That is not enough for PiS to form a government on its own.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PiS opponents celebrating victory<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The opposition coalition includes former Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s united opposition movement, the Civic Coalition (30.7 percent), the Third Way Alliance (14.4 percent), and the left-liberal Lewica (8.61 percent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The far-right Confederation, which is ideologically closer to the PiS, also entered the Sejm, but its 7.16 percent is insufficient to influence Poland’s future government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political landscape of the next few years will be shaped by the broad opposition coalition, which together won more than 53 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polish media and social media users lauded the election as a triumph of democracy, emphasizing unprecedented voter turnout of 74.38 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Andrzej Duda, of PiS, in his first post-election comment, noted the turnout and thanked voters for coming to the polls. He said he was happy with the state of democracy in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Duda, officials and propaganda officers in Minsk were not quite happy. State propaganda seems to be confused by the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, \u0141uka\u0161enka accused Duda of fraud<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On October 6, the Belarusian ruler pinned “some hope” on the Polish opposition to improve relations between Warsaw and Minsk. “At the same time, we should brace for the worst,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Belarusian and Polish experts agreed that Tusk’s coalition, if it won the election, would continue the PiS policy toward Minsk. In 2020, the Polish opposition leader supported protests in Belarus and suggested nominating \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja and Siarhiej Cichano\u016dski for the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aware of the balance of power, Minsk had no illusions and was prepared to use the elections in Poland for its propaganda purposes. Minsk has long considered Warsaw one of its main enemies, and directed Belarusian state propaganda to expose flaws of the Polish polity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minsk has a tested strategy. For many years, \u0141uka\u0161enka has denied numerous accusations of electoral fraud and leveled exactly the same accusations against the “collective West.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka often says that Belarus is not a dictatorship, and claims that there is no genuine democracy anywhere. He claims that elections are rigged all over the world, and in this respect Belarus is no worse than any other country. He says that protests are suppressed everywhere, dissidents are imprisoned, and there are scores of political prisoners in Europe and America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the run-up to the election, Belarusian propaganda and officials have accused Poland of all these sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2020, when \u0141uka\u0161enka was struggling to contain protests against election fraud in his country, he accused the Polish president of vote rigging, “Duda won by rigging the election. The margin of victory wasn’t even one percent. He falsified it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last three years \u0141uka\u0161enka’s cronies have labeled the Polish government a “dictatorship,” “the Duda-Morawiecki regime” and “puppets of the United States.” Minsk has called Polish border guards “fascists” for pushing migrants back into Belarus and portrayed a Polish defector as “a victim of political persecution.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BelTA reports 144 violations <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian propaganda had special plans for the Polish elections. On October 14, one day before the vote, the state agency BelTA rolled out a Polish version of its website. According to its general director, Iryna Aku\u0142ovi\u010d, the aim was to “inform our neighbors, ordinary Poles, about the things their authorities are trying to hide from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before the election, the Belarusian state-controlled media reported that Polish voters were concerned about possible fraud, predicted that the poll would trigger a political crisis and would be followed by reprisals against the opponents of “Duda-Morawiecki.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a reference to Polska News, a media outlet that does not seem to exist, at least among the Google search results, and quoting an anonymous “concerned citizen,” BelTA reported that the ruling party has begun to identify participants in the opposition March of Million Hearts, which gathered hundreds of thousands in Warsaw on October 1. BelTA claimed that their data would be transferred to prosecutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the election day, BelTA reported 144 irregularities, such as “power cuts,” “incorrectly printed voter lists,” and an “incident” in Bialystok, where the head of a polling station allegedly took the election seal home for a night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the end of the propaganda story about how the “Duda-Morawiecki\u201d regime usurped power in Poland. As the evening of October 15 approached, it was clear that voting was going smoothly. The fraud story was a hard sell, especially after the reputable sociological service, IPSOS, published exit poll results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland will be trending in Belarusian state-controlled media <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Poles have strongly criticized the conservative PiS this fall, accusing it of authoritarian tendencies, disputes with the European Union and the use of public media for propaganda and the demonization of opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts note that Polish society was alarmingly polarized during the election campaign. The division endangered the social consensus, which is why the election was called fateful and brought a record turnout. Concerns about vote count manipulation were greatly exaggerated: transparency was guaranteed by state institutions that are independent of politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These institutions, with their checks and balances, stress that the political campaign in Poland is not over. Only the election is over, while the process of forming a new cabinet of ministers still lies ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although PiS has ceded some ground, it still has enough room for maneuver because of its strong performance in the election. President Duda, who is supposed to initiate the process of change, also has his options. The three opposition groups have not yet reached a consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to some analysts, it may take several months to form a new government. The Polish issue remains hot for \u0141uka\u0161enka and his propaganda, despite the fact that their main bet has obviously failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Via\u010des\u0142a\u016d Kora\u015bcie\u0144 Poland\u2019s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party won the October 15 parliamentary election with 35.38 percent of the vote. That is not enough for PiS to form a government on its own. PiS opponents celebrating victory The opposition coalition includes former Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s united opposition movement, the Civic Coalition (30.7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":6095,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-7030","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPolish election leaves Belarusian propaganda confused | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Via\u010des\u0142a\u016d Kora\u015bcie\u0144 Poland\u2019s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party won the October 15 parliamentary election with 35.38 percent of the vote. 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