What will Ewa Kopacz do for Polish women? Think Margaret Thatcher

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/05/ewa-kopacz-polish-women-margaret-thatcher

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Ladies and gentlemen, here’s introducing the new Polish prime minister, Ewa Kopacz, who gave her inauguration speech on Wednesday. Kopacz replaces her Civic Platform party leader, Donald Tusk, who will become president of the European council after a cushy deal with David Cameron, who backed Tusk on the promise to help secure more comfortable options for the UK, including tackling immigration. So, who is Ewa Kopacz, and what does she stand for?

She is referred to by some as the Polish Margaret Thatcher, who still enjoys popularity in some circles as a fervent anti-communist. Yet so far in her political career, Kopacz has seemed to lack the late British PM’s ruthlessness. Thatcher enforced her own political will, and was a strong ideological force behind the Tory party; Civic Platform purports to be a liberal democrat party. But given Poland’s persistent culture wars, its politicians know not to rock the boat, and go with the mainstream. Kopacz will be no exception.

Previously the speaker of the parliament and minister of health, Kopacz gained some notoriety for attempting to privatise Poland’s still partly public health service, and for discouraging doctors from giving anaesthetic to women in labour. Furthermore, Kopacz has become PM at a time when protecting women from domestic violence is considered too radical for Polish parliamentarians.

Just last week, the Sejm (Polish parliament) was supposed to discuss and pass a bill outlawing domestic violence, which is a requirement for European Union members. Fresh to her office, Kopacz did nothing to help the bill, cancelling its reading and pushing the debate to a late-night session, which was universally read as a concession to the rightwing opposition.

The bill included points on “fighting stereotypical roles of women that may perpetrate violence”, which was instantly contested by conservative MPs obsessed with the nebulous threat of “gender ideology”. They made sure to ridicule it, and the bill may be sent back to remove the problematic points.

If a female PM chooses her first debate in parliament to be a concession to the rightwing conservatives, Polish women can’t expect a particularly enlightened future. The mainstream in Poland today still means keeping the Catholic church and conservatives sweet. Just as American conservatives in the 1980s were forcing “culture wars” and endless debates on morality, Poland’s ruling factions don’t differ any more in their actual political programme. What matters is keeping the power, or enough voters happy, so that election victory is guaranteed. It is called post-politics.

In Poland, one of things that keeps Civic Platform in government is the fear many middle classes in the bigger cities have of Law and Justice, the sharply reactionary conservative opposition. Yet in the end, even when discussing the civil rights every civilised country should have – such as women being protected from violence – both parties speak with the same voice.

Upon swearing an oath, Kopacz chose a curious feminine metaphor, saying that “when the thief is around town, a cowardly mother goes home to protect her children”. Perhaps this suggests she’ll be easily bossed around by the more powerful, mostly male politicians from her cabinet.

In her speech, Kopacz preferred to focus mostly on armaments and better tax deals, and credit options for entrepreneurs. There will be no change with the placing of Nato bases in Poland, intensely demanded since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. There will be no change in industry and the economy, as Polish politics in this matter is still influenced by the likes of the ex-minister of finance and architect of “shock therapy”, Leszek Balcerowicz. He is often in the media demanding that the ruling party should deal with the “overly swollen” public sector, and cut its pay. She touched only briefly upon the recent “brain drain” as a problem, and promised stipends for young Polish scientists. But what about the huge Polish, mostly working class, immigration, now exceeding a record 2,2 million, with up to 800,000 in the UK alone (the issue Cameron wants to tackle, with the help of Tusk in his new capacity)?

Aptly, the PM’s inauguration occurred on the same day Polish miners protested on the streets of Warsaw at the critical state of their industry, now often undercut by cheaper Russian coal and desperate for subsidies. A conservative female leader confronting miners may look familiar, but Ewa Kopacz will only be continuing a Thatcherite policy chosen by Polish politicians long ago.