Last year’s Poland elections were crucial for many reasons. Yet, the one that remained primary was the hope that its people had on ending the alleged 8- year autocratic rule that the The Law and Justice party (PiS) had in the country which was criticized for its conservative approach in introducing policies. In the country, the party received backlash for its anti- abortion views and media control among other controversial decisions resulting in the displeasure of several civilians. So, for the 2023 elections, the opposition experimented with a new strategy through coalition to gain the support of the masses. Good news came to the people of the country when the coalition with ‘Civic Coalition’, ‘Third Way’ (KO party and the New Left party) and ‘Polish People’s Party’ won the 2023 elections. This was followed by Donald Tusk being elected as the new Prime Minister of the country in December. However, all does not seem well as there have been several protests against the newly elected Prime Minister supposedly pushing the notion of an “Independent Poland” in favor of the former minister and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
The protests are reportedly against the policy changes that the new government is introducing which are allegedly to gain the favor of the European Union. Added to this was the imprisonment of two MP’s belonging to the The Law and Justice party and the changes with the functioning of the media in the country. Now it seems that the country’s President Andrzej Duda is moving towards freeing the ministers thereby having conflicting opinions with the Prime Minister on the matter. The people took to protesting against the reforms via rallies which occurred on Thursday, 11th of January. It seems that the new government is already facing challenges with pleasing the public and though a sparring is visibly seen, it will be a while before a definitive judgment on the new government could be made.
