Capital punishment is back on the Polish political agenda.
Generally the public is very much in support of the death penalty, it is the politicians and other bodies who oppose it. I am quite sure that it will be difficult to reintroduce death penalty but someone has to start work in this direction.
Those are the words of the far-right League of Polish Families, MEP Maciej Giertych, who is launching a campaign to reinstate the death penalty. He’s going to get half a million people to sign a petition demanding a referendum on the subject.
President Lech Kaczynski said last week that the EU should debate reinstating execution EU-wide.
EU establishment’s jaw hits its boots.
Giertych wants to start with the most outrageous killers – predatory pedophiles who murder children.
“The public is afraid of such criminals after they are released from prison.'
Poland formally gave up capital punishment in the late nineties. But nobody had been executed since 1988.
Donald Tusk, Leader of Opposition Civic Platform, a party that tries to appeal to the more ‘liberal’ voter, said that:
“Everyone would be willing to do away with a freak who kills children but on one condition - everyone has to be aware of the repercussions of the reinstatement of capital punishment in Poland. One of the most important for the millions of Poles would be the weakening of this country's position in the EU or even the exclusion from the most vital membership rights.'
One of the conditions of entering the EU is giving up the death penalty.
As usual with Civic Platform this is rather feeble opposition. The only argument they can come up with against capital punishment is that ‘Brussels won’t like it’.
If Tusk wants to oppose capital punishment then he is going to have to make some rational and coherent moral and judicial arguments why capital punishment will not make children any safer from pedophiles, nor will it make Poland a lovelier, happier, place to live.
But why now?
This might be about the EU, sovereignty, but all politics is local. By jumping on the momentum of Kaczynski’s remark, the League’s petition campaign is an attempt to give it some distance from its senior government coalition partner, Law and Justice (PiS). This could well be about pressing the right populist buttons to reinforce the electoral base.
PiS, who in opposition in 2004 tried to get a reinstatement of the death penalty (and lost by four votes!) and will make noises about reinstating it when in government, are still wary of the huge international consequences if they tried
The League couldn’t care less.
Commentator Oskar Chomicki told Radio Polonia:
'The League of Polish Families wants to be recognized as a separate political entity versus the ruling Law and Justice. It is a local issue but it also has some international repercussions.'
League of Polish Families is hovering around 5% in the opinion polls, barely enough to get them members of parliament in an election or many councilors in the local elections later this year.
It’s time to play the hang ‘em, flog ‘em’ card.
13 comments:
Death penalty, not my favorite subject. I am against it. But I am for democracy. If a majority wants it, they should get it. End of discussion.
nobody had been executed since 1988
1988 was also the year Krzysztof Kieslowski released 'A Short Film about Killing', part of his series on Ten Commandments. Coincidence ?
One of the conditions of entering the EU is giving up the death penalty
Ok. So that's why so many Poles want the death penalty back. The abolishion of death penalty was shoved down their throats by the Brussels bureaucrats and the Poles resent it. Worse, they feel like sell-outs for letting themselves be bribed... Just for that, for having so much contempt for democracy, the death penalty should be reinstated, to spit in the face of those arrogant Eurocrats who will not let people decide those things. That anti-democratic contempt is far worse (and dangerous) than the death penalty itself.
Hilarious. The "government" of Poland brings up the death penalty knowing full well it will be slapped down by the association of nations which they of their own free will joined. "Help, I'm being oppressed."
"But I am for democracy. If a majority wants it, they should get it."
Sonia, on
the one hand democracy means that, indeed. On the other, fortunately, it doesn't: there are democratic institutions involved, and let's hope death penalty won't be back. (Personally I oppose it very much, and don't see it as the triumph of popular will, who knows why)
The majority is very good at wanting bull - we have seen that not once, haven't we. You want democracy in the Middle east and elsewhere: has it occured to you, where would that lead right now in Iran or elsewhere?
Death penalty was abolished in Romania in 90) - later many wanted (voices not so different from the ones Beat writes about)to reintroduce it. There was popular will, so to speak. Fortunately it wasn't, exactly because something we also call democracy functioned.
Beutiful film that. Kieslowski's. I did not know about this coincidence.
Beat, interesting, then when it comes to death penalty people always mention serial killers and such. What is the percentage of those, I wonder?
I know what you mean, Redwine, but Sonia has a point.
Yes, it is good that the death penalty can’t come back in Poland if it is a full member of the EU. The freedom to work in the UK etc is very popular and they will not risk that.
But that means:
a)The Euro-victims will love it! – Ooo look at the Sodom and Gomorra coming from Brussels; it’s foreign to us, it’s the New Soviet Union blah blah. The EU is fueling nationalism.
b)The stupid idea that capital punishment is going to solve the rare crime of child murder and make everyone feel safe in their beds, is popular here. The only way to fight it is to take it on in debate.
And we can’t do that because we are in the EU!
Not a good way to fight nationalism.
Don't the League of Polish Families folk read their Catholic Catechism? They are a disgrace to the memory of JP2, as are all the other politicos who are going along with such pathetic pandering to people's basest and most primitive instincts. Wstyd.
The death penalty for certain grievous offences, when proven without a doubt, is entirely appropriate.
The concern about killing an innocent is understandable but why throw out the baby with the bath water?
Capital crime cries out for capital punishment. An executed murderer will murder no more, I guarantee it.
It is a 'knee jerk' issue.
What I find interesting is that they start this with pedophiles who murder children.
These are the last type of criminals that the death penalty would have a deterant affect. These people a very rare deep perverts who can;t change their behaviour even if they wanted to.
So this is not about an intelligent call for a better penal system...nor will it reduce the small number of these crimes.
It's a cynical political ploy. Period.
I have no theoretical qualms about capital punishment. I could gladly pull the switch on Ted Bundy (and a few others) and not lose a minute of sleep.
But I have _lots_ of practical concerns, mostly owing to the fabled and almost infinite power of any government to screw things up and get the wrong person. So in that regard I'd rather not kill lots of scumbags who deserve it so that I can be sure to not kill some poor SOB who winds up on death row because his lawyer was incompetent/asleep.
But ounishment must be rational, Mike. And I can find nothing rational about injections, electric shocks etc ...it's revenge and other base emotions
As for base emotions. Yeah, that's another reason to oppose capital punishment, the meta-message behind it is: "It's okay to kill people if you have a good enough reason."
On the other hand, I could pull the switch for some with no malice or ideas of revenge, just, you know, making sure they don't do it again. But that's completely theoretical, and capital punishment is an issue I can argue for and against theoretically till the cows come home. Practically, I don't want the state killing innocent people which is a clear danger in any scenario in which capital punishment exists. That kind of trumps the theoretical arguments for me.
And I would quite like to pull the switch too on a few I know. Good reason that for not allowing me to!
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