Until now.
So I, of course, am not allowed to vote, but my students and cohorts are...and you can guess who they voted for.
As is typical of elections everywhere...the urban areas with higher income and education levels tend to vote for the more worldly and progressive candidate (Tusk). Unfortunately for Tusk, Poland is hugely rural, and he wasn't able to convince the farmers that a free market economy and the EU should be embraced with open arms (Most of the other outspoken presidential candidates are anti-EU).
What was interesting, though, was watching the votes by districts (like our states-in the states-our 'blue' states were along the coasts of the oceans and great lakes-here, they were all the ones lining Germany's border-and equally split along the Baltic shores. Odd? Another oddity was that as large as the main cities are (Warsaw 2 mil., Krakow 1 mil., Wroclaw <1mil, Lodz-ditto, Katowice, Gdansk, etc.), the rural regions surrounding them within their districts (states) almost always outvoted the inner city voters. That's like the rest of Illinois out voting Chicago area (1 million against 8+ million)-something that has never happened and never will-but it did here.
A phenomenal voting and marketing campaign was had in the rural regions, where unemployment (18% for the whole country) and anti-EU feelings are highest, and Tusk's focus on an economic future tied strongly to its western neighbors didn't sit well with the country bumpkins. Lech Kaczynski first stood on the grounds of ousting all the remaining communists in parliament (which fortunately happened last month, despite many of them changing party names to 'hide' from the SLD label on the ballots), and he's since pushed family/catholic church values, Poland's self dependence (go away EU!), and increased miltarism-possibly leaning towards a police state?!
Lech Kaczynsky has been known for his 'tough on crime' stance here, as the mayor of Warsaw-the jails have tripled in 'membership' over the last 3 years, and they're bursting at the seams. For better or worse, the police force has been growing at a tremendous rate, but they still don't seem to be cracking down on the dangerous drivers (drunk and sober), something that every pedestrian and passenger seems to fear. Mr. Kaczynksi is also famous for preventing gays and lesbians from having their gay parade permit last spring-of which they held anyway, and had some scuffles with the law. He'll be meeting in the Hague soon as the EU commission on equal humanitarian rights has a few words in store for him in court-a potentially dramatic event that I only wish had occurred before this election.
Another story missed here was Kaczynki's brother, make that identical twin brother, Jaroslaw, who happend to head the PiS ("Peace" by sound, but Law & Justice by meaning) party in parliament. He just got voted in last month, and now his brother will be president. Earlier, they agreed on a no-name financial analyst to be Poland's prime minister. Let me repeat that, that was earlier this month-just after the parliamentary elections...but they may easily change their minds and hand the most powerful position in Poland to Jaroslaw.
That would then empower two identical twin brothers to run the show. They're so identical that either one could be speaking for the other-and no one would know who really said what or who could be accounted for saying this or that. It could make for some interesting hearings in the future!
So what does the PiS party stand for? They plan to stand in the way of international development within their borders. They plan to increase their military might (the decision to pull out of Iraq is officially on hold until the new President enters his palace in January). They hope to reduce the rights of gays and minorities. They will continue to keep abortions illegal and women's power reduced in the workplace.
And with his party dominating parliament, his brother dominating the party, and himself as the new poster child of all that is good and right in Poland, he'll be getting everything he wants, except for an American visa.
And speaking of which, he'll probably make it even harder for me to stay here...
