The government majority in the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, has approved amendments to the Polish Election Code that increase the number of polling stations and require local authorities to provide free transportation on voting day for the elderly and disabled. Right and proper or not? No, for the opposition, social progress is instead to discriminate not only against unborn life, favoring abortion, but also to prevent the elderly and disabled from exercising their right to vote.
Last August, the opposition’s coalition candidate for the position of the Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, declared that only those who support the introduction of the right to abortion on demand will be allowed to run for office, either in his Civic Platform party or in the anti-family, anti-life coalition being built in Warsaw.
In recent days, another ‘choice of the opposition shows what the terms ‘inclusion,’ solidarity, and democracy mean to them. The national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and its governing coalition have promoted and approved an electoral reform which envisages that more polling stations could be set up in villages with as few as 200 inhabitants and that buses should be organized to enable people over 60 or those with disabilities to come to polling stations if regular public transportation is not available. Well, giving Poles and all citizens the opportunity to vote is precisely the duty of government in order to foster democracy and participation in the civic life of the nation.
Forcing government to accompany the most distressed and elderly citizens to the polls is proper for a government that includes everyone and makes justice and social solidarity two strong reasons for commitment. Isn’t that what a progressive government should do as well? No, not only do the opposition parties fear the citizen voters of the future, hence they favor the liberalization of abortion, but they have also said they oppose promoting voter participation for rural citizens, the elderly and the disabled. In short, all those who do not vote for their socialist and libertarian coalition should not vote at all. Simple as that. In fact, the opposition voted against the proposed changes to the election law, because it fears that the elderly, old, sick and disabled may favor the ‘conservative’ parties and coalition.
This social democratic progress is not democracy, nor rule of law but oppressive ‘centralism’. Yet, this has helped to unmask the ‘progressive’ coalition and show that in reality, if the opposition wins, it would abolish the right to vote to all who are not its voters. The ‘democratic Soviet’ smoke that has choked Poles for 50 years.