Whither Euroscepticism? The Uses of European Integration by Polish Conservative and Radical Parties

Abstract

The impact of European integration on party politics has elicited a growing research interest. A sociological approach, focused on power relations and the redistribution of political resources by actors referring to ‘Europe’ has recently opened new research perspectives. This article considers to what extent the use of the reference to European integration has enabled conservative and radical Polish political parties on the right – such as Law and Justice (PiS) and the League of Polish Families (LPR) – to modulate their position in relation to other parties. The uses of European references will be analysed both in the transnational and the domestic political field in order to discuss whether – and under what conditions – the critical reference to European integration may appear as a resource that enables the strengthening of the radical party leaders' discourse and visibility on the eve and in the aftermath of accession. The article argues that taking into account the domestic context, the relations between the political parties and the temporal dimension are necessary preconditions of a valid demonstration.

Key Words:

• Poland
• Euroscepticism
• Europeanization
• political parties
• conservatism
• extreme right

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Tim Haughton, Kevin Deegan-Krause and all the participants of the workshop ‘Is Populism a Side-Effect of the Europeanization of Political Competition?’ held during the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Rennes 2008 for their useful comments on a previous version of this text. Many thanks also to Jean-Yves Bart for his linguistic help. I am responsible for any remaining inaccuracies.

Notes

Since the 1990s, the academic debate has triggered a large number of definitions of ‘Europeanization’. The one proposed by Claudio Radaelli (2001) is clear and complete as it refers to: ‘Processes of (a) construction (b) diffusion and (c) institutionalization of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, “ways of doing things” and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the making of EU public policy and politics and then incorporated in the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures and public policies' (Radaelli, 2001, p. 110). However, as will be shown later, we can also consider Europeanization not only as a phenomenon, the extent and intensity of which we can measure, but also as a process, which has to be analysed through its social uses, i.e. the way social actors refer to the EU institutions, norms and regulations in order to position themselves within specific configurations (see Baisnée and Pasquier, 2007).

Stemming from the journalistic discourse, which applied it to the attitude of the British Conservative Party towards the European integration in the 1980s, the term ‘Euroscepticism’ has triggered a flourishing academic literature. Paul Taggart proposed a pioneering definition of an ‘idea of contingent or qualified opposition, as well as incorporating outright and unqualified opposition to the process of European integration’ (Taggart, 1998, p. 365). For a discussion of different attempts to define the logics of contestation of the European integration and to make it operational, see Fuchs et al. (2009b) or Neumayer (2008).

These opposite poles have been called ‘gal’ (green/alternative/libertarian) vs. ‘tal’ (traditionalism/authority/nationalism) (Marks et al., 2006).

The National Democracy (ND) was a nationalist right wing political movement founded at the end of the nineteenth century. Its main ideologue was Roman Dmowski. During the interwar years ND was the principal opposition to the ruling Polish Socialist Party (PPS). It held nationalist and anti-Semitic ideas.

Interview with a representative of the EPP group, 21 February 2003.

The decision to join a transnational party federation was often the result of strong controversies inside Central European party presidencies.

After the 2009 European elections, during which the PiS received 27.4% of votes (with a low turnout of 24.53%), 15 PiS MEPs joined the European Conservatives and Reformists group composed mainly by parties from the former Union for Europe of Nations and the European Democrats section of the EPP-ED.

Interview with a PiS representative, October 2007.

The decision of some PSL MEPs to cross over to the UEN caused a split in the party at the domestic level. The defecting MEPs have been excluded from the PSL and founded the ‘Piast’ grouping. During the 2009 European elections the PSL won 7% of the votes and three mandates in the EP. These three MEPs joined the group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats), while other former PSL members were candidates on the PiS list. Some others were – unsuccessful – candidates under the Libertas banner.

Interview with a LPR MEP, European Parliament, March 2008.

Of the 58.85% of voters who participated in the referendum, 77.45% voted in favour of accession.

Interview with a LPR MEP in the European Parliament, March 2008. The interview with Giertych was published on 12 June 2003 in Gazeta wyborcza.

In the 2009 elections, the LPR did not send any MEPs to Brussels, as it got only 1.1% of votes under the banner of Libertas.

This demand is a legal aberration: when it acceded to the EU, Poland accepted the principle of the primacy of Community law.

The presidential function in Poland is more than just a ceremonial position. The President represents the State in foreign affairs, leads the Armed Forces and has the right to veto legislative bills by refusing to sign them. The air crash on 10 April 2010, in which President Kaczyński and his wife, 15 MPs and several senior government officials died, led to anticipated presidential elections in June 2010. It is difficult yet to tell how this tragedy will affect the Polish political competition.

Politicians also carefully follow the opinion polls published daily in the press. Some of these polls considered that half of the PiS electorate is critical towards European integration. But some others showed that Radio Maryja's listeners did not necessarily vote as expected.

Finally 68 MPs, all from the PiS, who voted against the Treaty, faced a dilemma: they either stayed in the party and had to accept the overall pro-integration position or they left the party to appeal to the traditionalist electorate in a different manner.

Interview with President Kaczyński ‘Prezydent: Przede wszystkim jestem Europejczykiem’, Gazeta wyborcza, 10 January 2009.

Participation did not exceed 21%.

On its website, this was visualized by a balance with a European flag and a Polish flag. ‘Choose what is important for you’ says the slogan. Available at http://www.lpr.pl/.

However, after the defeat in the 2007 elections, a positive campaign was launched (Yes to the zloty, http://www.zlotytak.pl/) to correct the image of an aggressive and negative party. Interview with a leader of the LPR in the European Parliament.

The demand for the organization of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was made by two MEPs elected on the LPR list, close to the clerical Radio Maryja: Witold Tomczak and Urszula Krupa.