Poland’s Rightward Turn

When Poland’s populist and conservative Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, or PiS) won a landslide majority this past fall, many were alarmed—and with good reason. PiS is a right-wing party, and like its political counterpart in Hungary, the Viktor Orbán-led Fidesz party, it too prides itself on being the defender of Poland’s traditional values and national sovereignty, the Roman Catholic church, and the country’s morality. Many worried that PiS’s election marked not only a rightward turn in Polish politics, but represented a broader resurgence of right-wing populism, xenophobia, and conservatism across Eastern Europe.