Poland’s new centrist government led by Donald Tusk is already engaged in its first major political test after winning the 2023 elections. The crisis in state media, where it is seeking to clear out right-wing incumbents, may well become a bellwether for what is likely to be a protracted struggle with the deeply embedded legacy of its PiS (Law and Justice) predecessor.
The direction and management of Polish state media, a long-standing and polarizing issue, has taken center stage as the new government seeks to curtail PiS influence in the institution.
Criticism of the broadcaster has been widespread over the years. During the election campaign, it offered “distorted and openly partisan coverage” on behalf of PiS, according to Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors, and — extraordinarily — one of its senior executives said after the vote that its output was “worse propaganda than [under communism] in the 1970s”.
During PiS rule from 2015 to 2023, Polish media, in particular state television (TVP), was used to attack political opponents, including members of the current government, bringing repeated condemnation from European institutions and the US. So it came as no surprise that the new government has made changing state media leadership, or “elite replacement”, a priority.
Yet the process of overhauling state media will be more easily said than done, with many legal pitfalls and a hostile Presidential veto to overcome.
In mid-December, just days after taking office, the newly appointed Minister of Culture Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz kicked things off by dismissing the management of state television (TVP), Polish Radio, and the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
This aggressive move was met with a sit-in protest at TVP headquarters, boasting the participation of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Kaczyński outlined the PiS position: “We must defend these media, precisely because we are defending democracy, defending citizens’ right to access information.”
Several days later the PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda also declared his opposition and announced his plan to veto the 2024 state budget, saying: “There cannot be consent to this in view of the flagrant violation of the constitution and the principles of a democratic state of law. Public media must first be repaired honestly and legally.”
The government plowed on, putting the three media outlets into a state of pending “liquidation,” where they have remained.
Even beyond the highly political and somewhat audacious PiS criticism, the legal basis for this media reshuffle is disputed by international and non-partisan observers like the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and by fellow “anti-PiS” political groups.
In a recent interview, Adrian Zandberg, a leader of the Left Together party (Lewica Razem), expressed his concern that the government’s move to take control of state media was “legally risky,” and may add to the “partisanization” of public institutions.
Zandberg’s party has otherwise backed the current administration even though it is not formally a member. For the government, the pushback is a signal that its political goals will have to be balanced against legal and democratic values.
As a case study, the unfolding of this media crisis offers a chance to understand how Poland’s new political dynamic operates, and how the new government will approach challenges. (In fairness, it has also resolved other issues, bringing an end to the truck drivers’ blockade of Ukrainian border crossings for example.)
The crisis also highlights the guerilla tactics employed by PiS as it retreats from institutional power. It is already apparent that PiS will now return to the rhetorical barrage which it suffered in recent years, by depicting itself as the defender of “democracy” and the “rule of law.”
In a telling move, PiS announced a protest for January 11 to bring together “ free Poles” who are “against the dictatorship of force and violations of the law by Tusk’s government.” The event seems to closely parallel the large opposition-led “pro-democracy” march in June, which was estimated to have drawn around 400,000 people.
The dispute also highlights the central logic of the current government, and how aggressively it plans to root out PiS influence.
Aleks Szczerbiak, a Professor at Sussex University in the UK and a leading expert on Polish politics, writes that some government supporters have a belief in “transitional justice,” in which legal and constitutional safeguards can and should be ignored because of what they see as they egregious behavior of the former regime. Yet, in so doing, the current government would necessarily open itself to the same accusations which it so recently leveled at the PiS government.
For the moment, it is too early to call, but as the crisis unfolds in the coming weeks, we will see how well the two sides perform as they trade places. At stake, regardless of the political rights and wrongs, is the rule of law and respect for legal processes in a still bitterly divided Poland.
Nathan Alan-Lee is a doctoral researcher at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, and is a commentator on Polish and regional affairs.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
