Rzeczpospolita has published the results of IBRiA research on the popularity of the new government after their first month in office.
56.3% of respondents said they positively assessed the new government, this number being split down the middle between those who were "decidedly positive" (28.6%) and those who were "rather positive" (27.7%).
More good new for the government is to be found in the data on younger voters: 77% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 said they were "rather positive" about the government. However, not a single respondent in that age group said they were "highly positive".
36.9% of respondents negatively assessed the government, that figure including 24.4% who are highly critical. This data reflects the sense that the country is still divided, very much in the grip of an ongoing culture war.
Rzeczpospolita quotes Professor Bartłomiej Biskup from Warsaw University who says that, "the polarisation means that two sides with radically opposed views are encamped in their positions. It won't be easy to reverse this tendency, which is not only present in Poland, but also, for example, in the USA."
However, the data published offers the government some comfort even when it comes to opposition voters: "only" 79% of Law and Justice and Konfederacja voters assess the government "decidedly negatively", suggesting there may be 21% of floating voters open to persuasion.
The predominance of "rather positive" views of the government, especially among younger voters, suggests that the mood in the country is closest to those commentators - like Professor Antoni Dudek and Stanley Bill (academic and founder of Notes from Poland) - who are critical of Tusk, but acknowledge the constitutional mess they have inherited from Law and Justice and the legal minefields ahead.
Dudek and Bill have suggested a "third way" for Tusk's government - instead of using legally controversial steps to "bring back the rule of law and the constitution" as quickly as possible, they should seek compromises with President Duda (i.e. win his support for at least some parliamentary acts), or, failing that, simply wait till the presidential elections.
In a recent op-ed for the Washington Post, "Poland is a test case for reviving a corrupted democracy", Lee Hockstader suggests that reviving a corrupted democracy may be harder than "building one from scratch".
Sources: Rzeczpospolita, X, Super Express/Dudek o Polityce, Washington Post
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