Poland Mayoral Elections.
Updated Nov 5, 2018
Before we go on to write this blog, we’d like to take the disclaimer that, as adoption professionals, we are not, in any way, shape or form, political experts. So this is simply an update to report on some local elections that took place in Poland over the last week or so.
We will use a Washington Post article written by Vanessa Gera and updated on November 4, 2018 – as we believe our readers, in the US, will be more familiar with the Washington Post as a source rather than the European Sources we found.
According to the article in the Washington Post, titled “Poland: Exit poll gives centrists edge in key mayoral races“ by Vanessa Gera,
“Poland’s local elections have received more international attention this year amid the rise of populist governments in other parts of Europe and around the world”
It would appear from the article that these local elections got more attention than usual, because the ruling party at the moment in Poland, Law and Justice Party, has controversial beliefs, including butting heads with the European Union. The general attitude of the party, would appear to be more nationalistic, as opposed to wanting to make friends on an international level.
Based on what we saw with in the past with Greece and England, when someone even talks about leaving the EU, it becomes a big deal. (Even if they don’t actually leave). Perhaps this election was so watched because if the current party stays in power, Poland could be the next country that gets that kind of attention.
The mayoral elections, similar, we guess to a mid-term election here, is used to gauge the support of the parties at play.
According to the article cited above,
“approach to governance was rejected by voters in Poland’s larger cities, which have seen mass anti-government protests in the three years since Law and Justice came to power. At the same time, the ruling party has been solidifying its support in rural areas.”
The article goes on to say that:
“During the Oct. 21 first round voting, Law and Justice strengthened its position in regional assemblies but lost mayoral races outright in Warsaw, Poznan and Lodz to a centrist pro-European Union coalition led by the Civic Platform party.”
So, this mayoral election which showed the current party losing in the major cities of Warsaw, Poznan and Lodz can perhaps be indicative of what is going to happen in the May of 2019 elections for European Parliament and the the national parliament in October of 2019.
Other major cities whose mayors were members of the challenger party, Civic Platform, won re-election in Gdansk and Krakow.
As adoption professionals, we’ve seen that Poland has been very slow and very uncooperative towards international adoption in the last year. We pray that this election, and any future election will result in people to be elected who care for the well being of orphans.
The word of God tells us, in James, that true religion is looking after widows and orphans.
We wish this for our leaders as well as for theirs, as it is easy to ignore those who have no voice for the time being, but let us not forget that it is the poor, the afflicted, the widows and orphans who are near to God’s heart.
Despite, this negative experience we’ve seen with Poland recently, the country is still open for international adoption and we are still accepting applications after we warn those wishing to pursue.
We wish to continue to fight for Polish orphans and those wanting to help them find permanency through internationl adoption.
