GW has an article today on the latest iteration of warnings to them.  They quote an anonymous 'senior PiS politician' as saying '[Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of PiS] has understood that he can't count on the support of Gazeta Wyborcza or its neutrality, he has therefore decided on a very hard line against Agora' [Agora is GW's parent company].  Of course the idea that Kaczynski ever thought he would get sympathetic coverage from GW is laughable - they've opposed him for a good dozen years now.

Gazeta Wyborcza provides a quote from Jan Maria Rokita, the leader of the main opposition party, the PO:  "This is a struggle over institutions. The Kaczynski brothers describe the control by them of all centers of power as 'state leadership'. They believe that the presidential and parliamentary mandate is strong enough for them to control all institutions, not just those to which they were elected. Their election to the 'leadership of the state' should give them domination over all institutions."

A PiS deputy, Artur Zawisza, responds  "What Rokita is saying is truly the core of the dispute between our two parties. The PO politician is describing the canon of liberal democracy - in which civic freedoms are the highest value, and authority is always suspect. The Kaczynski brothers for their part are seeking a model of non-liberal democracy, in which the democratically elected authorities are not always suspect. It thus has the right to intervene in all sorts of areas, not so that sweaty guys can get drunk on power, but to protect the community and the common good, when they are threatened."

PiS idzie na wojnę z Platformą i Agorą

The other day GW reprinted extracts from an editorial in the Czech Lidove Noviny which said that while as good Polish nationalists, the Kaczynskis can't stand Putin, they seem to be taking a page from him in terms of their vision of state and society...