This year’s Annual Copernicus Lecture, organized by the University of Michigan Copernicus Center for Polish Studies, was delivered by professor Wojciech Sadurski, an internationally-renowned constitutional law scholar. Professor Sadurski has numerous publications and visiting professorships to his credit, and presently teaches at the University of Sydney and in the Centre for Europe at the University of Warsaw.
The lecture was entitled “The Post-Populist Predicament: On Redemocratization and Rule-of-Law Restoration in Poland since 2023.”
Wojciech Sadurski has been an outspoken critic of the rule of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland, the party which won two consecutive parliamentary elections and ruled Poland for eight years (2015 – 2023), but on October 15, 2023, lost the elections to the Civic Coalition. The decisive victory of the coalition of the opposition parties over the incumbent populist regime is sometimes called “the Polish Miracle”, and was significant not only for Poland, but also as example to other countries with populist governments.
In his lecture Professor Sadurski compared the post-2023 changes with another Polish transition of huge importance, that of post-1989 (from communism to democracy).
According to Sadurski, in some way the post – 2023 transition has been easier, as not only is its goal clearly defined – a return to the rule of law, after a deep erosion of democratic institutions – but also because Poland has the post-communist constitution (since 1997), and is a member of the EU and NATO, none of which was the case during the post-1989 transition. In certain ways, however, the post-2023 transition has been more difficult due to a much deeper, even toxic polarization of Polish society, a lack of cooperation from the previous regime and the “invisible erosion” of public institutions. This happened incrementally, leaving the institutions standing, but hollowed out. Two examples of such institutions are the Constitutional Tribunal and the Polish National Broadcasting Council, both of which under the rule of PiS became politicized and controlled by the government which is contrary to the Polish Constitution.
In a brief “post scriptum” to the lecture, Professor Sadurski addressed what he referred to as “the elephant in the room”: the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on Poland. According to Sadurski, the potential alliance of presidents Trump and Putin against Ukraine would create a strategic and existential threat to Poland (if Ukraine were to be de facto controlled by Russia.) In addition, Trump’s support for radical, anti-EU parties in Europe also weakens the processes of re-democratization in Poland, while the dismantling of USAID, which supported important NGOs (among them ones helping Ukrainian women and children in Poland) has already been negatively affecting the strength of the civil society in Poland.
Professor Sadurski sees a possible “silver lining” in an otherwise very difficult situation in the EU reuniting and developing its own military defense system, as well as bringing back the UK to the EU. The first two processes, however, will take a long time, while the UK has been closely cooperating with the EU.
In addition to Polish Americans, mostly from the Ann Arbor area, the lecture brought to the University of Michigan’s Weiser Hall some law faculty and students, who engaged Professor Sadurski in conversation during the Q&A part of the meeting. Among the discussants was Agnieszka Mrozik, an associate professor of literary studies at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poland, on a fellowship at U of M, who challenged Sadurski with questions critical of the current Polish government. In her criticism, Mrozik mentioned not delivering on the pre-election promises concerning women’s reproductive rights, not following some EU recommendations, and especially, taking very tough measures towards illegal immigrants, including suspension of the right to asylum. With all of this criticism professor Sadurski agreed.
Professor Sadurski’s lecture was very interesting, informative, and complex, and it will be available for viewing in a couple weeks (please check the website https://ii.umich.edu/polish ).
