KOBYLIN-BORZYMY, Poland (AP) – Life has always been hard for Witold Pogorzelski, a farmer in eastern Poland. Fuel shortages in the communist era prevented him from transporting his produce. In the capitalist era, the nearby sugar factory that provided an income to him and his wife was forced to close.
But now, as the 64-year-old prepares for retirement, he feels like there’s finally a bit of hope.
He and his wife Barbara are among those who voted for the populist Law and Justice party, which won power in 2015 promising to help those left behind by the inequalities of Poland’s free-market era, to protect traditional Catholic values and to rebuild national pride.
The party won 38 percent of the vote nationally, which gave it a majority in parliament. But here in Kobylin-Borzymy, a modest rural community about a 2½ hour drive northeast of Warsaw, the party won 85 percent. Support was also very high in many surrounding communities, making this the heartland of a populist revolt bringing radical change to the Central European nation of 38 million people.
Months before Britain voted to leave the European Union or the United States elected President Donald Trump, Poles booted out their own political establishment, a pro-business and pro-European party, Civic Platform, which had governed for eight years.