Redundant Far-Right?

Photo: Jean-Marie Le Pen campaining in April 2007.

Looking back at the national elections in Poland of two days ago, I remember a commentary I wrote for the summer issue of The Vienna Review (July/August 2007, Vol. 5, No. 6, p. 30) with reference to the French Parliamentary Elections. The reader might remember that after the clear victory of the Nicolas Sarkozy in the Presidential Elections of May 2007, political commentators expected a fulminating victory of Sarkozy’s conservative Union pour un movement populaire (UMP).

A Blogger’s Happy Life

Well, when I spread my wings on the weekend and started this blog, I wasn’t sure what I was letting myself into. I expected very little – that is not meant in a negative way – but after all, I am totally inexperienced in blogging. And who would read what I have to say?

Well, this is the second day in my venture, and when my blog registered almost 30 hits yesterday, I thought this cannot get any better for the time being. I was wrong: I have now almost 40 hits and the day has still some hours left. All I did on Sunday night when I went public was to inform my 50-something contacts about it.

European Election Fever

Photo: Lech Kaczynski (left) just sworn in his brother as Prime Minister of Poland, 2006

In a truly remarkable national election, the Polish people rejected the far-right coalition government: The autocratic rule of the ‘potato heads’ in Poland has reached its end, as the far-right PiS of President Lech and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski (see picture above) lost not only its pole position, but also its right-extremist coalition partners, such as the League of Polish Families and the populist, rural-based Self Defence Party, did not pass the 5% threshold. Nevertheless, Lech Kaczynski’s term ends in 2010.