By focusing on an external enemy, the Law and Justice Party is trying to transform its image in Brussels and beyond.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party, being caught in the middle of a geopolitical showdown between Belarus and the European Union isn’t a bad place to be. Having built its brand on victimhood at the hands of Brussels, Berlin, and Moscow for years, the party has been happy to step into its new self-designated role as the solitary bulwark protecting Europe from the years-old migrant bogeyman and the bloc’s enemies to the east.
In the face of Belarus’s attempts to use desperate migrants from Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere to its advantage against the EU, Poland’s government has launched its own counteroffensive over the past few weeks, publishing dramatic videos on social media and launching a dedicated web page to combat the “lies, [and] disinformation” coming from Belarus. Meanwhile, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has put out English-language speeches directed at Europe, warning that the confrontation with Belarus may be the precursor to a more dangerous military challenge from Russia.
Over the past month, this strategy has largely been a success. As the crisis on the Polish border swelled to a fever pitch, the Law and Justice Party’s messaging around the situation has yielded very real dividends. Having been considered pariahs within the EU for years, party leaders have now gained the unequivocal solidarity of the international community on the border issue and managed to rally previously waning political support at home.
They have garnered timely, if mostly symbolic, offers of additional military support from the United States and Britain, and have connected their efforts to dramatically expand Poland’s military to the looming threat posed by Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus and his backers in the Kremlin.
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