“What was disturbing to me was how easily the referendum issue could be manipulated between different generations. It seemed like moral compulsion not to respond to the pull of Law and Justice. Here we see an action with the title: ‘I will freeze my ears off to spite my mother.’ For the generation of young people who were already working and had some knowledge and experience, it was “unacceptable” that someone would ask them a question directly, says Prof. in an interview with wPolityce.pl. Anna Łabno, outstanding lawyer and constitutionalist.
READ ALSO: REPORT. Elections for the Sejm and the Senate 2023. The National Electoral Commission announced the official results. Who won the seat in a particular district? Which names in the Senate?
wPolityce.pl Has the huge voter turnout “overturned the electoral table”?
Prof. Anna Labno: The turnout was impressive, but I don’t think it was the result of spectacular changes, especially when it comes to youth participation in elections. I analyzed the results in individual age groups, including in the context of turnout, and found no evidence that it was the new generations that introduced fundamental changes and shifted the lever to the liberal-left. I’m afraid this is a deeper problem. It is not about the lack of political experience of young people, but rather a lack of understanding of the processes taking place in contemporary Western Europe.
So are we going beyond the sphere of Polish political cuisine?
Much wider and I would see a problem here. Meanwhile, Western Europe today is not necessarily a model, and the European Union offers young people concepts of personal and public life that do not have to fit the patterns we have shaped. The problem is that there have been changes in the way we approach reality. The years of the Third Polish Republic were not marked by attempts to build a national or social community.
An individualism of individual social groups was built up. Especially the privileged.
And individualism. It all stems from the 1990s belief that “if I take care of myself, I will achieve economic and aspirational success.” I am afraid that this is not part of the program, including in the context of young generations, in schools, in the media, in the concepts proposed by various leaders, together with this slogan of a nice, easy life, the appearance of happiness wakes. But this happiness is not rooted in ultimate beliefs, in the assessment of reality, life, man’s function in the community and his role. This is a very serious problem of a kind of ‘nihilism’, an inability to understand that man not only lives for himself, but also has to look much wider. I remember when I was teaching at university. I didn’t always agree with what my students said. Sometimes I did not understand them and they pointed out different aspects of public life to me. They emphasized that the fact that we have media pluralism does not mean that the media offers something thoughtful and valuable.
Since the slogan “Third Polish Republic” appeared, the referendum questions were a kind of response to the ills and pathologies of the years 1989 – 2015.
It is still too early in September to draw definitive conclusions. There is a need for information from social scientists. Attitudes need to be analyzed. What was disturbing to me was how easily the referendum issue could be manipulated between different generations. It seemed like moral compulsion not to respond to the pull of Law and Justice. Here we see an action with the title: ‘I will freeze my ears off to spite my mother.’ For a generation of young people who were already working and had some knowledge and experience, it was ‘unacceptable’ for someone to ask them a question directly.
Did they need any special finesse? After all, the referendum must be simple, the questions must reach the broad masses of society.
Maybe they should think about it for a moment? We forget that part of our society is highly educated and thinks very independently. In addition, he has a sense of responsibility and his value. When politicians ask questions a certain way and you are a very young person, the relationship is the opposite of what you expected.
Is there a natural rebellion?
Not even because you want to ‘out of spite’. Young people may wonder, “Why do they treat me like a thoughtless person?”
However, the referendum turnout was not the worst. That is more than 40 percent. and this in a country that does not have a particularly strong referendum tradition.
If this referendum had been carried out correctly, perhaps the situation today would be different?
This issue is extremely important. We can talk about a scandal today. Voters were advised not to pick up the referendum card. This could also have influenced turnout.
It is possible, but we need to collect hard data here and analyze the protests. Without Supreme Court proceedings, we can’t make much judgment today.
But in this context is it justified to talk about a protest at the Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs? Does this still make sense today?
Why not? I have not come across any suggestions from members of the Electoral Commission, but if the commission behaved differently, a protest would have to be lodged. The Criminal Code lists crimes against elections and referenda. I believe that anyone who has been treated in this way should carefully analyze these provisions, take the time and file an electoral protest in writing.
And what evidence do you need to collect? After all, not everyone needed an appropriate explanation to the committee. How can you prove it without tangible evidence?
This is difficult to prove, but we can provide a witness or witnesses to such an event. In any case, to somehow demonstrate my position, I would file such a protest. It’s a civil issue.
Perhaps the legislator should directly identify and amend existing regulations so that similar situations do not arise again?
This is always a problem. We would be dealing with a direct response to specific behavior, but I wouldn’t ignore the problem. We definitely start behaving rudely. Propaganda worked against this referendum through anti-citizen behavior. Everyone is entitled to their own assessment of the legitimacy of the referendum, but convincing people in various ways not to participate is behavior that should be stigmatized.
Such appeals were, for example, filed by Judge Wojciech Hermeliński, former head of the National Electoral Commission.
This means that someone does not understand his role as a citizen and judge. This must be shown. If we do not understand that young people need education, we will not be able to combat certain trends in any way, otherwise we will be too few and we will be like the Christians who meet secretly in the catacombs.
Another problem is the issue of undermining the status of the Chamber for Extraordinary Scrutiny and Public Affairs. It is this House that will decide on the validity of the elections. This is also done by representatives of important European authorities.
One of the textbooks on constitutional law states that the power of the Supreme Court to decide the validity of elections cannot be questioned, but a problem arises when there are doubts about the independence of the House. So we have a problem because the Supreme Court’s decisions will continue to be questioned.
But does this interrogation have a legal basis?
In my opinion not. But this is a conversation between the conflicting camps. One of them claims that he has the support of the European Union, and I would like to remind you that our citizens regard the Union as a sacred image. This is an oracle for them. As soon as you start talking about reforms, there will be an attack. Meanwhile, changes to EU electoral law are having dramatic consequences.
In this chaos of the campaign, we miss political changes in the European Union. In the meantime, they want to destroy the independence of the Member States, especially in the context of the veto.
Unfortunately, yes. A book about changes in the EU will soon be published. For this publication I wrote an article about the reform of EU electoral law. I have the impression that in this context the Polish elections were lost. The results do not guarantee that an independent policy will be pursued. Moreover, we have limited our ability to influence from within. If we do not think about the European Parliament elections today and provide society with answers, education and wise propaganda, disaster will result.
Interviewed by Wojciech Biedroń
Source: wPolityce