Some of Europe’s worst Russophobes are tearing themselves apart – but it won’t help Russia

Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party is splitting into factions, but Moscow shouldn’t expect an olive branch any time soon The end of July has brought significant changes to Polish domestic politics: the country’s main right-wing opposition force, Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice (PiS) party, has officially split. More than 30 members of the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament) were demonstratively expelled from the party. This marked the end of a long-standing, latent standoff between the longtime party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and the moderate wing of former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Kaczynski issued a harsh ultimatum of loyalty to his allies, and Morawiecki responded by creating his own association, Rozwoj Plus (Development Plus), asking the leader to “take a step back” and publicly refuse to sign declarations. Kaczynski viewed this as a rebellion and expelled the dissenters from the party. It’s worth noting that in Poland’s recent history (since 1989), splits within the right-wing camp are almost canon, occurring with clockwork regularity. The Polish right has a unique quirk in its proverbial DNA: it is inherently incapable of maintaining a monopoly on power for long. As soon as they win or, conversely, suffer a major defeat, a fierce melee for leadership and party funds immediately erupts within the camp. Jaroslaw Kaczynski is a constant participant and chief orchestrator of these processes. His distinguishing characteristic is his preference for remaining with a small but absolutely loyal sect rather than with a large but free-thinking coalition. This is what happened in 1989, when the Solidarity party disintegrated due to a conflict between Lech Walesa and the Kaczynski brothers, creating a vast array of obscure right-wing players, who were later united under the Law and Justice banner ten years later. In 2007, the most significant split occurred, when PiS was at the height of its power and Kaczynski was prime minister.

Due to a dispute over a constitutional amendment banning abortion, Sejm Speaker Marek Jurek led the ultra-Catholic wing of the party to form the Right Side of the Republic (Prawica Rzeczypospolitej). This split deprived Kaczynski of his majority in the Sejm, triggered early elections, and handed Poland over to Donald Tusk for eight long years. Read more Poles’ dislike of Zelensky on the rise over Nazi scandal – poll Finally, in 2011, when PiS lost the parliamentary elections to Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform, a search for blame began within the party. The young, ambitious, and extremely popular former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro openly accused the aging Kaczynski of authoritarianism and ineffectiveness. Kaczynski didn’t hesitate and expelled Ziobro and his associates from the party. As a result, Ziobro took a group of MPs with him and created the radical Solidarity Poland party (Solidarna Polska). The right was divided for 13 years. They returned to the coalition only when Kaczynski guaranteed them ministerial seats and a share of the party budget. The latest schism, however, is fundamentally different because of the new reality, both in Poland itself and in the world around it. Firstly, this split is occurring against the backdrop of total financial bankruptcy and the physical liquidation of the PiS party’s rear. While Kaczynski had previously deliberately pursued splits, being “well-fed and strong,” Donald Tusk has now pinned him down, with no legal escape. For example, budget funding through subsidies from the State Electoral Commission (PKW) has been completely cut off. The loss of subsidies triggered a chain reaction: the prime minister’s team completely purged PiS party cadres from major state monopolies like energy giants Orlen and PGE, depriving Kaczynski of shadow sponsorships, while state-owned banks PKO BP and Pekao SA blocked all credit lines to t