“I will not engage in a contest over who deserves the most credit for the political changes taking place in Poland,” said EIC Tomasz Sakiewicz. “These changes will inevitably come following the presidential elections. The only question is how quickly and how profoundly they will occur—because the process of decomposition within the ruling camp, and more broadly within the liberal left, has already begun. This process was ultimately unavoidable, although it could have been delayed for years. Now, that is no longer possible.”
According to Sakiewicz, Donald Tusk’s continued leadership of the government will only provoke a deeper societal backlash in the months to come. “A controlled transition may slow down the pace of change, but it will not stop it,” he added.
“What has caused developments that could have stretched over a decade to suddenly accelerate so dramatically?” Sakiewicz asked. “Changes in the media landscape. It is the remarkable growth of Telewizja Republika, the bursting of the media bubble, and the channel’s reach into audiences previously reliant on information from the other side of the spectrum that have led to a mass shift in voter sentiment away from the ruling camp. People do not want to be deceived—they seek alternative sources of information and are capable of drawing their own conclusions.”
“It is no surprise, then,” he continued, “that the authorities have focused their full wrath on Republika, on independent media, and on the institutions that support them. The conclusion for us is clear: we must now do everything in our power to support both Republika and the broader independent media landscape.”