Sławomir Sierakowski: The possibility of Polexit

It is becoming increasingly possible that PiS is willing to sacrifice not only EU funds but even Poland’s EU membership, just to cling to power, writes Sławomir Sierakowski, founder of the Krytyka Polityczna movement

Immediately after the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, as many as 100,000 protesters turned out in Warsaw, and similar demonstrations were held in 120 other cities. Photo: AP/Czarek Sokolowski

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Poland’s greatest dream was to join the European Union and NATO. Scarred by Nazism and then communism, Poles longed for a fresh start, and membership in NATO and the EU became a goal that transcended politics.

EU membership was considered so important that Polish liberals pointedly refrained from taking up divisive issues concerning Polish history or the Catholic Church. Even Pope John Paul II (a Pole) got involved, pushing the slogan “from the Union of Lublin to the European Union,” in reference to the 1569 pact that finalized the unification of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (under which today’s Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine comprised a single, democratically governed state).