The editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik, compared the victory of Karol Nawrocki in the recent Polish presidential elections to Adolf Hitler winning the German vote in 1933.
“I’ll give you a very drastic example,” the former dissident and opposition activist continued. “In 1944 or 1945, Thomas Mann wrote in his essay ‘My Germany’ that it’s not like there’s a good Germany and a bad Germany. The Germany that supported Hitler is my good Germany that went down the wrong path. Well, I claim that half of Poland went down the wrong path on Sunday, June 1, but it’s possible to come back from that path. And I believe that it will come back,” Michnik continued, referencing the election of PiS-backed Karol Nawrocki as president.
Michnik was giving an interview to Onet, alongside former two-term president, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, where the two discussed systemic and political changes in Poland,
Former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski said that he would like Karol Nawrocki’s victory to be “an episode, an accident at work,” adding that it is “unfortunately, yet another one, because Andrzej Duda can hardly be called anything other than an accident at work.”
Kwaśniewski then lauded Michnik’s “optimism,” stating, “because Adam is a bit older than me and still believes that he will live to see the sun (rise). And I am starting to wonder if we will succeed.”
Painting a rather doomsday scenario, he continued: “In two years, it will be very difficult for democratic forces to win the elections. This could be the path to destroying everything that we have achieved in a systemic, democratic sense since 1989. Next to me sits a man who has experienced many more difficult situations than I have, so let’s trust him that we have to be optimistic forever.”
Kwaśniewsk also said “Orbán’s Hungary” will not work in Poland.
“The idea of transforming Poland into Viktor Orbán’s Hungary will definitely not work. We don’t know the details, but it won’t work,” Do Rzeczy quotes him a saying.
