The Republic of Poland

The Republic of Poland is a country located in Central Europe. It covers an area of approximately 316 696 square kilometers. It borders countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany. It is the fifth most populated country in the European Union, with a population of 37.8 million people, according to the government’s records (Worldometer 2020). The capital of this country is Warsaw. Other cities include Szczecin, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Lodz, and Krakow(Worldometer 2020).

Poland is a country with a well-founded system of democratic government. The framework of governance in this country is a unitary semi-presidential system. In this system, the President serves as the head of state while the prime minister acts as the head of government (Gwiazda 2017). The President of Poland is elected by popular vote to serve for a period of five  years, and he or she can only be re-elected once. The last presidential election was conducted on 28th June 2020, and the next election is expected to be held in 2025. The current President of Poland is Andrzej Duda, who was elected in 2015 and took over from Bronislaw Komorowski. The Polish Constitution defines the power of the President. The President acts as the supreme commander of the Armed Forces and has the right to initiate the legislative process (Gwiazda 2017). The President also acts as the highest representative of Poland, a role that gives him or her the power of ratifying and revoking international agreements and nominating and recalling ambassador. Another crucial power of the President of selecting the Prime Minister. In Practice, the Prime Minister is selected from the party or coalition with the majority in Sejm. After the Prime Minister is approved by the Sejm, he or she has the responsibility of proposing the Council of Minister to the President, who then appoints them and present them to the Sejm for approval (Sadurski 2019). The Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, and the President comprises the executive branch of the government. The executive decides the country’s internal and foreign policy(Sadurski 2019).

As a multi-party system, Poland has many competing political parties (Wojnicki 2020). The right-wing parties in Poland have largely dominated the political scene since 2005. The two major competing parties from the right-wing are the Law and Justice Party (PiS) and Civic Platform (PO). The ruling party is the Law and Justice Party (PiS), while the Civic Platform (PO) is the current opposition (Rulka 2019). Other parties in Poland include Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), United Poland (SP), Polish People’s Party (PSL), Spring (WRB), Modern(N), Kukiz’15 (K’15), Left Together (LR), Polish Initiative (IPL), Union of European Democrats (UED) and Poland 2050 (2050) (Rulka 2019).

The Republic of Poland has a bicameral parliament. The parliament has two chambers, the Senate and the Sejm (the lower chamber) (Granat and Granat2019). In the Sejm, there are 460 members, while the Senate has 100 members. In these two houses, the members are elected for a term of four years. The last parliamentary election was conducted in 2019, and the ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS) managed to gather the majority in the lower chamber while the opposition won the majority in the Senate. The next parliamentary election is expected in 2023. The constitution gives legislative power to both the Senate and the Sejm. However, the constitution gives the Sejm a more dominant role in the legislative process (Granat and Katarzyna 2019). The inequality between the two houses is also clear in that the Sejm has the right to control the Council of Ministers. There are some occasions that require these two chambers to have a joint sitting and form the National Assembly. These occasions include when a new president is taking the oath of office, declaring permanent incapacity of the President to exercise duty, and bringing an indictment against the President (Gwiazda 2017).

The Supreme Court, also referred to as Sąd Najwyższy, is the highest court in Poland (Granat and Granat2019). As the highest court, its function includes supervising the adjudication in both Military Courts and General Courts. It also acts as a court of appeal against previous judgments passed by other lower courts except for the administrative courts. It is also involved in passing specific legal provisions as well as resolving disputable questions in certain areas (Sadurski 2019). The Supreme Court judges are chosen by the President of Poland for an unspecified period. The head of state also has the power of selecting the President of the Supreme Court(Sadurski 2019).

The Republic of Poland is a unique country compared to other European countries. While other European countries have largely been influenced by left-wing advocacy groups in the development of the political and social systems, Poland has largely remained a conservative country (Oppenheim 2020). The two major competing parties in this country, the Law and Justice Party (PiS) and Civic Platform (PO), supports conservative ideologies. Furthermore, Poland is also one of the most Catholic nations globally, and therefore consecutive governments have always focused on keeping the clergy on their side (Oppenheim 2020). The current government has focused on opposing same-sex marriage and LGBT ideology. Poland is ranked as the least LGBT-friendly country in the European Union (Oppenheim 2020). The conservative ideologies adopted by the government have led to huge political debates and demonstrations in the country. For instance, Poland’s Constitutional Court recently banned abortion in Poland. The Washington Post reports that this decision has led to demonstrations from women’s rights activists, as they consider this a violation of human rights. These activists accuse the ruling party, the Law and Justice Party, of using the COVID 19 pandemic to push through tougher laws against abortion (Morris 2020).