This July, I decided to apply to the Polish president’s, Karol Nawrocki’s, two-day forum on the last weekend of August for both national and international Polish young adults (ages 18-26), which took place in Jurata, Poland. Although Poland’s president is known to be right-wing, he emphasised that this event was for Polish youths of all political beliefs and I, as a young leftist who has never entered a predominantly right-wing space, became curious as to the truthfulness of this statement. Along with about 800 others, I received an invitation to the event.
Ideally, I would’ve also been able to attend the gathering of the president’s liberal opponent, Rafał Trzaskowski, in order to compare them, but it just so happens that they accidentally made the two overlap. Jokes aside, the political polarisation between the right-wing president and liberal government was painfully apparent while I was in attendance in Jurata. And while I couldn’t attend the second forum, from what I’ve seen, it seems that both camps could’ve been much improved through cooperation rather than a staunch opposition, persistently maintained to the detriment of Polish politics as a whole. That being said, I likely wouldn’t have been allowed to join the second forum regardless of the overlap, since it’s organised more exclusively for young supporters of the liberal government, certainly limiting the scope of their more “intellectually-focused” activities.
As for the weaknesses of the event in Jurata, although its purpose was to share your views on Poland’s future with the president, this was quite difficult to do with the arrangement of the event, which kept our intellectual participation scarce. Additionally, it was challenging to be able to speak with the president one-on-one, since it seems that (somehow) no one planned to accommodate the sheer amount of people wanting to do so, despite what was vaguely promised on the event’s website. Instead, there was a greater emphasis on sports and cultural activities, which were, by contrast, great. Still, there were many tasteless comments critiquing the liberal camp (as I’m sure was the case there as well) and shallow, racist, anti-immigrant sentiments dispersed throughout its presentations, which exasperated me, to say the least.
That being said, afterwards, I also saw many of Poland’s liberal politicians spread disgusting lies on social media about the president’s event, though there was very little media coverage (as it took place in an exclusive part of a Polish peninsula until now entirely closed to the general public) to support their comments. While there were definitely aspects worthy of criticism, this blatant propaganda obscures any capacity for nuanced conversations about its flaws, only serving to pointlessly deepen the already potent political divide.
Nonetheless, this experience solidified my conviction that many of Poland’s young adults are sociable and intelligent, and tired of this fruitless polarisation. Though many inevitably came as strict followers of the far-right, others (myself included) quickly saw that their intellectual hopes for the event weren’t being realised, and so instead discussed (Polish) politics among each other. It was this discussion especially that enriched my trip, and it is unfortunate we didn’t have more organised opportunities of this nature, with some of Poland’s politicians attentively present to listen to those of us there to challenge their base ideas.
Overall, I fail to see how this event could’ve helped the Polish president hear the various political opinions of today’s Polish youth. As I suspected, it underlined a nationalistic approach to politics and was mostly organised to oppose the “liberal” forum happening around that same weekend, to strengthen polarised perceptions between the two, which— I must underline— is being harmfully perpetuated by both parties involved. Ironically, if they were to organise a forum blending the liberal side’s aim to focus on intellectualism (since they are determined to prove themselves more intelligent) and the right’s emphasis on culture and sports (since they wish to align with the common man and display a nationalist strength) Poland’s representatives would’ve been able to create a truly remarkable experience involving its youth in its politics. Unfortunately, while competing with each other, they instead weakened themselves, sidelining those who represent Poland’s very future in the process.
“3x weto Pałac Prezydencki Flickr Platformy Obywatelskiej 20 lipca 2017“ by Anonymous photographer from/working for Platforma Obywatelska is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Engaging Young Adults in Politics: A Polarised Poland
This July, I decided to apply to the Polish president’s, Karol Nawrocki’s, two-day forum on the last weekend of August for both national and international Polish young adults (ages 18-26), which took place in Jurata, Poland. Although Poland’s president is known to be right-wing, he emphasised that this event was for Polish youths of all political beliefs and I, as a young leftist who has never entered a predominantly right-wing space, became curious as to the truthfulness of this statement. Along with about 800 others, I received an invitation to the event.
Ideally, I would’ve also been able to attend the gathering of the president’s liberal opponent, Rafał Trzaskowski, in order to compare them, but it just so happens that they accidentally made the two overlap. Jokes aside, the political polarisation between the right-wing president and liberal government was painfully apparent while I was in attendance in Jurata. And while I couldn’t attend the second forum, from what I’ve seen, it seems that both camps could’ve been much improved through cooperation rather than a staunch opposition, persistently maintained to the detriment of Polish politics as a whole. That being said, I likely wouldn’t have been allowed to join the second forum regardless of the overlap, since it’s organised more exclusively for young supporters of the liberal government, certainly limiting the scope of their more “intellectually-focused” activities.
As for the weaknesses of the event in Jurata, although its purpose was to share your views on Poland’s future with the president, this was quite difficult to do with the arrangement of the event, which kept our intellectual participation scarce. Additionally, it was challenging to be able to speak with the president one-on-one, since it seems that (somehow) no one planned to accommodate the sheer amount of people wanting to do so, despite what was vaguely promised on the event’s website. Instead, there was a greater emphasis on sports and cultural activities, which were, by contrast, great. Still, there were many tasteless comments critiquing the liberal camp (as I’m sure was the case there as well) and shallow, racist, anti-immigrant sentiments dispersed throughout its presentations, which exasperated me, to say the least.
That being said, afterwards, I also saw many of Poland’s liberal politicians spread disgusting lies on social media about the president’s event, though there was very little media coverage (as it took place in an exclusive part of a Polish peninsula until now entirely closed to the general public) to support their comments. While there were definitely aspects worthy of criticism, this blatant propaganda obscures any capacity for nuanced conversations about its flaws, only serving to pointlessly deepen the already potent political divide.
Nonetheless, this experience solidified my conviction that many of Poland’s young adults are sociable and intelligent, and tired of this fruitless polarisation. Though many inevitably came as strict followers of the far-right, others (myself included) quickly saw that their intellectual hopes for the event weren’t being realised, and so instead discussed (Polish) politics among each other. It was this discussion especially that enriched my trip, and it is unfortunate we didn’t have more organised opportunities of this nature, with some of Poland’s politicians attentively present to listen to those of us there to challenge their base ideas.
Overall, I fail to see how this event could’ve helped the Polish president hear the various political opinions of today’s Polish youth. As I suspected, it underlined a nationalistic approach to politics and was mostly organised to oppose the “liberal” forum happening around that same weekend, to strengthen polarised perceptions between the two, which— I must underline— is being harmfully perpetuated by both parties involved. Ironically, if they were to organise a forum blending the liberal side’s aim to focus on intellectualism (since they are determined to prove themselves more intelligent) and the right’s emphasis on culture and sports (since they wish to align with the common man and display a nationalist strength) Poland’s representatives would’ve been able to create a truly remarkable experience involving its youth in its politics. Unfortunately, while competing with each other, they instead weakened themselves, sidelining those who represent Poland’s very future in the process.
“3x weto Pałac Prezydencki Flickr Platformy Obywatelskiej 20 lipca 2017“ by Anonymous photographer from/working for Platforma Obywatelska is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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