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January 07, 2006
Who rules Poland? Who do you think?
No one in their right mind would be interested in the squalid personnel-changes that pass for politics in Poland but the elevation of Zyta Gilowska to minister of finance and deputy prime minister illustrates a few realities about where power lies in Poland that might go some way to reassure those who are worried about the autocratic tendencies of the ruling Kaczy?ski twins.
Gilowska was a member of the PO (Civic Platform – the names, as usual in modern politics, are largely meaningless) before being kicked out back in May for a mild case of nepotism. She has now joined the near-winners in the recent elections here: the Kaczy?skis’ PiS (Law and “Justice”). The interesting bit is the minister for finance that she is replacing: the hapless Teresa Lubi?ska. Lubi?ska’s sin was – no, not nepotism and not party political apostasy and opportunism either – but the far more heinous crime of offending the markets. Some time ago she expressed a negative opinion about the gigantic foreign supermarkets moving in to pick over the carcass of the Polish economy. The worst thing was she did so in the Financial Times, where foreign investors might read it. It’s alright for newspapers to report how supermarket employees work wearing nappies because they are denied toilet breaks but a government minister must on no account pass such remarks, lest investors be scared off.
So there you have it: the make-up of the Polish cabinet is not determined by the prime minister, Marcinkiewicz, nor his puppet-master, Kaczy?ski, but by foreign investors who read the Financial Times and need nappy-wearing wage-slaves to keep the profits rolling in.
Posted by hgrodsk at January 7, 2006 02:33 PM
Comments
Don't you think though that the timing of this latest little reshufffle is the important factor...just days before PiS have to try and get the budget draft through the Sejm. With a more 'Platform friendly' finance minister they have a chnace of getting them on board for the vote. Otherwise they are left relying on Samoobrona and LPR. I don't think the markets had anything to do with it...it's just the nasty little politicing of a minority government.
Posted by: beatroot at January 8, 2006 10:43 AM
"Platform friendly finance minister", "relying on Samoobrona and LPR" -- see, this is what I mean by squalid personnel changes.
These are all factors but I prefer to take the long view. The excoriation and ridiculing of Lubińska was something to behold. Zyta Gila Monster is a sop to the markets: she's a typical neoliberal technocrat.
Posted by: Henry Grodsk at January 8, 2006 05:21 PM
She is a typical neoliberal technocrat - which means that she will fit in with all the other neoliberal technocrats that mass the finance ministries and central banks of Europe. Politics has been taken out of economics.
Posted by: beatroot at January 9, 2006 11:44 PM
Well predicted Beatroot: today's main story in Gazeta Wyborcza is all about the possibility of coalition after all (between Zyta Gilowska's new party and her old party).
That the markets are calling the shots does not mean politics have been taken out of economics, just that democracy has been emasculated.
Posted by: Henry Grodsk at January 11, 2006 06:17 PM
Cheers. I suppose I meant by taking the politics out of economics that:
The loss of faith in the state as an agency for social and economic advance; the rejection of long-term political goals, resulting in politics taking on an increasingly administrative character; and the view that There Is No Alternative to the market.
Unelected central banks concerntrate on inflation at the expense of all else. Neoliberal economics is almost seen as 'common sense', and when choice is taken out of politics, that's the death of politics.
Posted by: beatroot at January 11, 2006 10:23 PM