7 minute read
Poland’s Political Theatre: From Elections to Cinematic Spectacle
When dealing with years of politically manufactured problems lead to unexpected cinematic spectacle of hilarity, enter “Sejmflix”.
by Ken Maciej Starczewski
On the 15th of October 2023 Poles voted and chose the opposition coalition which ended the 8-year rule of nationalist conservative Christian party PIS (Law and Justice). Many have celebrated this happening and sighed with relief that PIS lost. While the Opposition is jubilating and PIS is doing everything not to hand over their power, Poles are enjoying Polish politics more than ever. Even subscribing to the Sejm RP (Sejm of the Republic of Poland YouTube channel), they watch the parliament live, funny videos and compilations of the best moments. But why do they do this and how did this happen?
Introduction to the 8 years worth of issues…
Let’s start with some information in a nutshell. The PIS party, in power since 2015, lost the 2023 Polish parliamentary election and failed to uphold the majority but refused to concede.
President Andrzej Duda ordered previous Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to create a transitional government, hoping to maintain PIS control. However, the plan failed, the Opposition Coalition took charge and chose Donald Tusk as their leader. Now that the new government is in power, more scandals are coming to light. The new parliament established investigative committees for: Visa fraud, Pegasus eavesdropping by PIS, and a corruption affair named “Land Affair” (which resulted recently in the arrest of two of the involved politicians: Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik).
“Now that the new government is in power, more scandals are coming to light. The new parliament established investigative committees for: Visa fraud, Pegasus eavesdropping by PIS, and a corruption affair named “Land Affair”
There are many serious issues that have affected the Poles and even the European Union despise PIS’s 2015-2023 government. PIS turned the Polish television network TVP (pol. Telewizja Polska), the largest and oldest one in Poland, into their propaganda machine within their political reign. It presented PIS as the only viable option for Poles and others as irredeemable and evil. This included the LGBTQ+ community, political opposition, the judges, EU, Germany, competitors in public TV broadcasting, news journalists and similar groups.
At the same time, PIS tried to get rid of Polish tv station TVN in 2021, because it was critical of PIS. Even though they had to stop due to critiques, particularly from the US, this incident illustrates how PiS government sought to utilize censorship to silence opposing voices.
Besides that, PIS had a big nepotism issue, where the PIS politicians and their family members would end up in many important institutions. As they promoted many judges and prosecutors based on their politics and not on skill/ merit. Poland also ended up not receiving many funds from the EU as well.
Sejmflix and chill
Alright, but how did it happen that the Sejm RP YouTube channel has exploded in viewership and subscriptions? Polish people have become more interested in Polish and EU politics again. This is evident in the significant increase in voter turnout, which reached a record high of 74.38% in the last election. With the change in power, many are hopeful that the country will recover from the democracy crisis of recent years. Citizens are glad that PiS is finally being confronted with their mistakes and their populist policies are no longer going unchallenged. Additionally, since the last elections people are enjoying the many crazy situations happening, many of which were broadcasted live on Sejm RP. I’ve observed people on social media proclaiming it as the best cabaret that you can currently watch. Poles, known for enjoying cabarets that comment on current socio-political issues, seem to particularly relish this one. It became such a phenomenon that several cinemas in Warsaw started screening Polish Parliament sessions multiple times. Hundreds of Warsaw citizens came to cinemas to watch the screening though not entirely for the purpose of celebration of the new pro EU-parliament. They did this mostly, because it was entertaining to them and unlike anything they have seen in a long time. After all, many of them brought colas and popcorn to the cinema. What is even more interesting is that the whole phenomenon of watching Polish parliamentary sessions from Sejm RP official channel even got dubbed as “sejmflix”.
Marshal of the Sejm: Szymon Hołownia
The fact that Polish politics got very hilarious to Poles is also thanks to our new Marshal of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia. The new representative of the Sejm quickly became respected not only for his eloquence and mannerism, but due to his quips, jokes and quick-wittedness in dealing with political opponents.
Szymon Hołownia has been a politically active politician for a relatively short time, so him becoming the new Marshal is quite a surprise and a contrast with his past. Before he engaged in politics, Hołownia used to be a journalist and a catholic columnist as well as co-host of a very popular program Mam Talent (polish equivalent of Got Talent). In 2020 he started in presidential elections and received 13.9 % votes. After the elections he formed a political party, Poland 2050. He approaches the political arena in a completely different manner, managing to inject a dose of humour into the typically rough parliamentary debates with his refreshing attitude. In doing so, he confronts the PiS, who are not accustomed to facing such witty comebacks. For instance, when a PiS representative attempted to belittle him in a very crude manner, Hołownia countered, saying, “I really appreciate your comments and remarks, but from my perspective they are becoming a bit monothematic. I encourage you to be more original. Challenge your intellect. Insulting is also a skill one must possess.”
Parliamentary YT channel phenomenon?
The enormous interest in Polish parliamentary discussions also led to a massive increase in viewership and subscriptions for Sejm’s channel. The number of subscribers rose rapidly from 45.900 in November 2023 to 700.000 in January 2024. Simultaneously, the views also increased immensely from around 11 million at the end of October to around 44 million at the beginning of January. In comparison, other YouTube Parliamentary channels do not get as much traction. In fact, it’s the most subscribed Parliament channel in whole Western Europe. In comparison, the German Parliament YouTube channel, Deutscher Bundestag, only has around 130.000 subscribers despite Germany having a population twice the size of Poland’s. The Greek Parliament channel, Hellenic Parliament TV, has an even smaller number of subscribers, amounting to around 64.900 and even the Italian Parliament channel just counts around 60.500 subscribers.
“It became such a phenomenon that several cinemas in Warsaw started screening Polish Parliament sessions multiple times. Hundreds of Warsaw citizens came to cinemas to watch the screening though not entirely for the purpose of celebration of the new pro EU-parliament. ”
What’s next?
Poles are relieved that PIS lost the elections and that the new government will be in power with hopes that it can fix the many problems created by the previous regime. At the same time, they anticipate new live streams and sessions with many important Polish political figures to watch and laugh. As Hołownia would say: “Ladies and gentlemen, stock up on popcorn... because I suspect there will be a lot of action.”
