What ever happened to ‘New Europe’? - by Peter Gentle
A couple of years ago there was a lot of talk about Poland and rest of Central Europe being a haven of free market, entrepreneurial, anti-protectionism, as opposed to the more ‘social European’ model of France of Germany. But those voices have gone rather quiet of late. US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsefeld, was claiming that a divide had opened up within Europe – between Old Europe (by which he meant, mainly, France and Germany) and New Europe, made up of countries like Poland, with their trans-Atlantic foreign policy and support for the war in Iraq.But only a year or so after joining the EU Poles voted in the general and presidential elections for representatives of the Law and Justice party, who stood on a prgram of limiting the free market and increasing protectionism. In fact, the reality of politics in this part of the world is very different from the neo-liberal fantasy. In last September’s general election only one party stood on a free market liberalizing program: Civic Platform. They got just 24% of the vote. That means 76% said 'No thanks" to economic liberalism. All the other parties, including the winner, Law and Justice, stood on a ticket that included a relativly leftist economic program.
So sorry Cato Institute, but its time for your highly respected commentators to go back to the drawing board. New Europe is very much like the Old Europe, only poorer and more frightened.
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