AMONG the many delights of Christmas Eve (Wigilia) in Poland is the custom of setting an empty place for an unexpected friend, relative or stranger who happens to drop in. The tradition is grounded, depending on whom you ask, in Biblical practice, remembrance of deported compatriots in war or pagan ancestor-worship. It emerged centuries ago, but survives at many carp-laden Wigilia tables across the world.
Inside the European Union, though, Poland’s populist-nationalist government is coming close to empty-chairing itself. Driven by the views of its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has spent two years sucking the independence from public institutions in a bid to reverse perceived wrongs of the post-1989 settlement. The European Commission, which as the guardian of EU treaties monitors such things, has spent the same period impotently wringing its hands. Having already defanged the constitutional tribunal,...Continue reading
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