Friends Of Europe Podcasts

In this week’s episode of Keeping an Eye on the Geopolitical Ball, Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe, looks at last Sunday’s national elections in Poland. Despite populists having achieved great electoral success as of late, such as Slovakia’s Robert Fico for SMER and Germany’s far-right AfD in two regional elections, Poland’s opposition unexpectedly won against the ruling Law and Justice party. The victory of Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition came as a surprise to many due to Law and Justice having put its trusted supporters into all key levers of power, curtailed the freedom of the media and tilted the electoral playing field in its favour. Consequently, Jamie dismantles how it was possible for the populists to be defeated despite having rigged the system in their favour. He outlines five lessons learned for other EU countries that struggle with populist actors in power.