Poland’s Law and Justice Party, since it took control, has banned abortion rights, limited other women’s health care for women, attacked LGBTQ rights, banned opposition political groups, shut down numerous trade union locals, instituted education policies that make Ron DeSantis’ policies in Florida look mild, installed its own right-wing judges in the courts, attacked all religious groups except the Roman Catholic Church, given the OK to people who want to steal any property held by the Romani minority in the country (with the argument that the Romani, who have been in Poland for centuries, have no rights), and sealed off the borders to people of color trying to enter the country.

Polls show that the ruling party, now led by Andrzej Duda, is in danger of losing the coming parliamentary elections on Oct.15. In an attempt to prevent that from happening, the government has resorted for the past month to a major campaign to convince the Polish people that their security is in danger, specifically from Russia and its Wagner mercenary group.

As the October elections draw near, the Polish government is ramping up the scare stories across the entire country. The main TV channel, TVP (Television Poland), is the most-watched station in the country and is under total government control. Every day, its anchors and commentators discuss new, non-existent threats coming from Belarus and Russia, even as people know that any Russian attack would be met with armed retaliation by NATO.

Several retired Polish generals, according to the Times, have added their voices to those who say the government claims are nothing but propaganda designed to gin up votes. A number of retired Lithuanian generals have done the same.

“There really is no such threat,” a Lithuanian general was quoted in several German newspapers as saying. Like the town councilor in Augostow, he declined to reveal his name because people like him can suffer retaliation in Lithuania and Poland these days.

Other generals have noted that alleged threats from Kaliningrad are particularly absurd since the Russian enclave is totally surrounded by NATO member states on all sides. Boxing in Kaliningrad was, of course, a major reason that NATO wanted to expand into the Baltic states in the first place. The threat in the area, if any exists, is to Kaliningrad rather than to Poland.

The opposition parties in Poland-left and center both-have an uphill battle to make the October elections be about real issues, to get voters focused on topics other than the ruling party’s fabricated security threats and fake populist referenda questions. They know what they’re up against.

Jacek Niedzwiedzki, the deputy head of Suwałki’s town council, is an opposition candidate for parliament on the list of the centrist Civic Coalition party. “Law and Order is hiking up the fear level in order to gain support in the election,” he said online recently. “We have to improve living conditions in Poland, not just build up fear of things that are not going to happen.”

Editor: Zhong Yao、Liu Tingting

From: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/right-wing-polish-government-afraid-of-coming-election-ramps-up-fear-campaign/（2023-8-24）