13 November, 2017

The Poland march shows the normalization of the country's far right

In my memery, Poland has always been a country with a love of freedom, and a love for the Catholic Church.  But now we see what happens when nationalism means that freedom only applies to "my" people and "my" church.  The idea there could be universal values doesn't seem to register with these marchers.  I can understand wanting to protect your sovereignty, especially when it has been so hard to win and to keep.  The strong cosmopolitanism of the EU is a hard sell, and it will remain so for a long time.  But that doesn't imply a celebration of hate, and that is all too often what we are seeing.

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Poland has a long liberal tradition, but we may be asking more of them they they are ready to handle.  If Britain can leave the EU, Poland can too.  Not NATO--I've found Poles far more interested in NATO than in the EU.  A Catholic Turkey seems to be where this is headed.

How the Poland march shows the normalization of the country's far right - The Washington Post

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