dr Bruno Surdel, Centre for International Relations, Poland

The Left in Poland is still associated with the old, Communist past of the country. Its main political party – the Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej) – is in fact a renewed leftover of the ancient regime’s ruling totalitarian party. However, there are also new left-wing groups that do not have much in common with the former system and have been trying to build the Polish Left from scratch. One of them is the Razem (“Together”), a party initiated by a new generation of social-liberals, and idealistic social-justice-seekers. In political, social and economic terms, they are – broadly speaking – followers of Yannis Varoufakis – a famous and influential Greek leftist visionary. One of their slogans sounds familiar to all left-leaning Europeans: “Higher wages, lower rents, free prescription drugs”. The issue, however, is that besides their “socially progressive” program – which doesn’t seem to enjoy much support within the voters’ majority – the Razem party does not have much on offer in the age of a massive redistribution extravaganza served to the voters by the Law and Justice government.

 The chairman of the Razem party is Adrian Zandberg. Even if his views might seem to some observers more Communist than Social-Democratic, (at least) in the beginnings of his political career he was a blunt and vocal critic of the Democratic Left Alliance which he saw as a direct successor of the authoritarian United Workers Party of Poland.

Foreign policy is an arena, where the Razem party is against the alleged “excessive submission to the USA and [multinational] corporations”. As Zandberg says, “This is a world in which the USA under Trump sees Europe no longer as an ally, but as an enemy.” On the other hand, “Europe is our home and we must take responsibility for it… Europe must become more democratic to move forward. The Left wants the European Parliament to have more power and to be able to control the functioning of the European Commission, not just on paper.”[1]

Zandberg’s views of China’s rise, its political system and global economic expansion within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are neither enthusiastic nor even positive. On the contrary, for him the Asian Communist giant is an epitome of a nowadays neo-colonialism:

“It’s a world in which China is growing in strength and economically colonizing not only Africa, but also the Balkans. These are real challenges…”[2]

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and its politicians, nevertheless, do not have such reservations towards Beijing. In summer 2012, their 14-member strong delegation was invited by the Chinese Communist Party for a China trip. The head of the visiting team was Professor Tadeusz Iwiński – a veteran ex-Communist politician and academician specializing in international affairs.

“It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as  long as it catches mice. The Chinese use this maxim very effectively”[3] – Professor Iwiński tried to explain his delegation’s trip to China – which was sponsored by the Chinese Communists – quoting the famous saying of China’s late paramount leader – Deng Xiaoping.

Other members of the SLD delegation were more frank in expressing their sentiments, including towards the Chinese political system:

“Beijing is almost like Manhattan, but cleaner… The Middle Kingdom's political system often raises controversies abroad, but in practice it is quite effective. For example, in individual provinces one of the deputy [Communist] party secretaries is also a governor”.[4]

Back to 2019, Professor Iwiński assesses developments in China also rather approvingly:

“It seems that in the 21st century, China is an example of a positive convergence, because on the one hand, China's 90 million-strong Communist Party has preserved its control over society, but at the same time deep economic reforms are being carried out in a very capitalist and free market spirit.”[5]

Professor Iwiński’s comments on the prospects of China-Poland partnership are European Union-oriented which is no surprise as the whole SLD as a party had after the transition to democracy became overnight enthusiastically pro-European. In addition, however, Iwiński seems to be very pragmatic too, which actually is a very characteristic symptom of the Left’s dislike for the right-wing Polish “exceptionalism” cherished by the ruling the Law and Justice party (PIS): “Poland has a chance to become a real partner for China only as member of the EU. It is worth to take seriously the advice: less Poland-focused ideology and Messianism – more realpolitik is needed.”[6]

Ironically enough, for the incoming elections (scheduled for 13 October, 2019) both the Razem party and SLD decided to join their forces and created an electoral bloc as the “Left” with another social-liberal new-comer “Wiosna” (Spring) party. Wiosna’s views about China seem to be ambiguous. Its chairman, Robert Biedroń is a former member of the Polish Sejm (the lower House of the Parliament), and now freshly elected member of the European Parliament. He is remembered for his comments about the ill-timed visit of a Polish parliamentary delegation (with a notable exception of the PiS and PSL Agrarian Party MPs) in Beijing in June 2013. It’s worth mentioning that Biedroń was a vice-head of the Polish Parliamentary Team for Tibet at that time.

For Poland, 4 June is a symbolic date of the peaceful end of Communism and the first partly-free parliamentary elections. For China, however, it is the Tiananmen Square massacre’s anniversary. Both events took place on the same day, the same month of 1989. Thirty years ago.

“I think that the timing of the visit – 4. June – and the meetings with representatives of the Chinese government do not make sense” – Biedroń argued. “But I also believe that the voice of the Polish Parliament is important. If this visit is already taking place, then members must be strongly armed with human rights arguments. I am glad that MP Kopyciński from the Palikot Movement [Biedroń’s former party] is there and will speak on that matter…” [7]

Next month, on 13^th October, the Polish Left is planning to strike back – or perhaps – to fight for its very survival.

The article was written under the project Chinese Influence in V4: Understanding the Impact on Political Elites supported by International Visegrad Fund.