Politics of memory

How many Poles hold nationalist views

Data 2017-01-03
Poles do not want Polish land to be sold to foreigners and are reluctant to employ them. One in three is prejudiced against Jewish people and the LGBT community.

Do you agree that:

Key points

Poles proud of their history, though feel hard done-by. Over three-quarters of respondents believe that the Polish nation has been wronged more often than other nations in the course of its history (CBOS). The opposite view is held by 14 per cent. At the same time, a similar number (74 per cent) believe that Poles can be proud of their history, because Poland has always behaved more honourably than other nations (one in five respondents do not agree with this view). Pride in being Polish has increased by 14 points in the last six years. Simultaneously, as many as 90 per cent of those polled said that they have never been ashamed of their nationality, or only been ashamed of it very seldom (this group has increased by 4 percentage points since 2010).

Economic patriots. Seventy-six per cent believe that Polish land should not be sold to foreigners - Poles have an emotional attitude to land and view foreigners buying it as a threat to the Polish identity. For this reason they could support solutions aimed at making it more difficult for foreigners to buy property in Poland. In addition, three-quarters of respondents believe that Poles should buy goods produced in Poland, as this supports domestic trade. There is increasing talk on the right about economic patriotism, with Klub Jagielloński promoting an app which, after scanning the bar code, shows "how Polish" a given product is.

Do you agree that:

One in three Poles is anti-Semitic and averse to gay people. There is a large group of Poles (between 30 and 40 per cent of those polled) who hold typical national democratic views - aversion to Jewish people and the belief that Catholicism is part of the essence of the Polish identity. Thirty-eight per cent think that a true Pole should be a Catholic, with 52 per cent holding the opposite view. In addition, 31 per cent believe that Jewish people have too much influence on Poland's affairs. Thirty-seven per cent disagree with this, while the remaining 32 per cent do not have an opinion. A similarly large group (37 per cent) say that being gay is not a normal thing and should not be tolerated: 48 per cent believe the opposite.

Immigrants taking Polish jobs. Poles are particularly afraid of land being bought out by foreigners, but the fear also concerns the labour market - 43 per cent think that employing foreigners increases unemployment in Poland. The fears probably concern mostly Ukrainians, who are the biggest group of economic migrants in Poland - according to our poll, half of those polled believe that Ukrainians take jobs away from Poles. One in three thinks that foreigners should be banned from settling in Poland permanently.  Poles are less radical when it comes to forming relationships with people of different nationalities - only one in ten say that Poles should not do so.

Do Poles want to take in refugees?

 

Averse to refugees. Studies carried out by CBOS since May 2015 on the attitude to taking in refugees show that Poles' opinions on this issue have radicalised. In mid-2015, one in five was opposed to taking in people from war-torn countries - currently, one in two are averse to the idea. Providing asylum for refugees for a given period of time was acceptable to 58 per cent of respondents - currently 38 per cent. There has been a particular increase in dislike of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (from 53 to 67 per cent). Aversion to refugees is fuelled by terrorist attacks in Europe, which intensify Poles' fear  - 59 per cent believe that there is a real terrorist threat, almost twice as many as in 2010.

what's next

Studies show that a nationalist party would have a potential in Poland. While only 7 per cent of Poles describe themselves as nationalists, 17 per cent support the activities of such groupings as the National Radical Camp or All-Polish Youth. An even larger number (30-40 per cent) shares national democratic views. At present, these voters are scattered and support different parties - from KORWiN, through the nationalists in Kukiz'15 and outside it, to PiS. A charismatic leader could focus the vote and create a party similar to Hungary's Jobbik. 

Juliusz Skibicki contributed to this analysis.

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Joanna Sawicka
Senior Analyst for Political Affairs
Joanna Sawicka
PI Alert
10:00
28.06.2024

EU summit: Member States launch discussion on financing joint defence initiatives

State of play

Leaders approved appointments to top posts. At the EU summit that ended on Thursday night, they nominated Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as head of EurCom, former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa as head of EurCou and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as head of EU diplomacy. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni abstained from voting for von der Leyen and voted against Costa and Kallas. This means that Meloni is preparing for tough negotiations and may demand a high political price in return for his party's support for von der Leyen in her approval in the EurParl. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán voted against von der Leyen and abstained on Kallas.

They adopted the Union's strategic agenda for 2024-2029. Over the next five years, the Union's goals include a successful digital and green transformation by "pragmatically" pursuing the path to climate neutrality by 2050. Another objective is to strengthen the EU's security and defence capabilities.

Von der Leyen spoke of EUR 500 billion for defence over a decade. This was the EurCom estimate of needed EU investment presented by its head at the EurCou meeting. Poland and France were among the countries that expected the EurCom to present possible options for financing defence investments before the summit, such as EU financing of common expenditure from a common borrowing. This idea was strongly opposed by Germany and the Netherlands, among others. In the end, von der Leyen decided to postpone the debate until after the constitution of the new EurCom, i.e. in the autumn. And the summit - after von der Leyen's oral presentation - only launched a preliminary debate on possible joint financing of defence projects.

Poland has submitted two defence projects. These might be co-financed by EU funds. On the eve of the summit, Poland and Greece presented in writing a detailed concept for an air defence system for the Union (Shield and Spear), which Prime Ministers Donald Tusk and Kyriakos Mitostakis had put forward - in a more general form - in May. In addition, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia presented the idea of jointly strengthening the defence infrastructure along the EU's borders with Russia and Belarus. Poland is pushing for the EU to go significantly beyond its current plans to support the defence industry with EU funds and agree to spend money on defence projects similar to the two proposals. But EU states are far from a consensus on the issue.

Zelensky signed a security agreement with the Union. The document, signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels, commits all member states and the EU as a whole to "help Ukraine defend itself, resist efforts to destabilise it and deter future acts of aggression". The document recalls the EUR 5 billion the EU intends to allocate for military aid and training in 2024 (in addition to bilateral aid from EU countries to Kyiv). It says that "further comparable annual increases could be envisaged until 2027, based on Ukrainian needs" i.e. it could amount to up to EUR 20 billion. Ukraine's agreement with the EU comes on top of the bilateral security "guarantees" Ukraine has already signed with a dozen countries (including the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy). As Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed in Brussels, talks are also underway between Ukraine and Poland on the text of mutual commitments on security issues.

PI Alert
21:00
09.06.2024

KO wins elections to the European Parliament

KO received 38.2 per cent of the vote and PiS 33.9 per cent, according to an exit poll by IPSOS. Konfederacja came in third with 11.9 per cent, followed by Trzecia Droga with 8.2 per cent, Lewica with 6.6 per cent, Bezpartyjni Samorządowcy with 0.8 per cent and Polexit with 0.3 per cent. According to the exit poll, KO gained 21 seats, PiS 19, Konfederacja 6, Trzecia Droga 4 and Lewica gained 3. The turnout was 39.7 per cent.

According to the European Parliament's first projection, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), which includes, among others, PO and PSL, will remain the largest force with 181 MEPs in the 720-seat Parliament. The centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), whose members include the Polish Lewica, should have 135 seats, whereas the liberal Renew Europe club (including Polska 2050) will have 82 seats. This gives a total of 398 seats to the coalition of these three centrist factions (EPP, S&D and Renew Europe) on which the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has relied on so far. The Green faction wins 53 seats according to the same projection, the European Conservatives and Reformists faction (including PiS) 71 seats and the radical right-wing Identity and Democracy 62 seats.

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