In Hungary, a new book by Łukasz Kobeszko has just been published, devoted to the changes that have taken place in Poland over the last four years. We talked to Prof. Maciej Szymanowski, Director of the Wacław Felczak Institute, about the origin for the idea for the book.
DoRzeczy.pl: Where did the idea for the title of the book come from - "reforms of good change"?
Prof. Maciej Szymanowski: The book discusses the circumstances in which the Law and Justice party came to power, the program of the party and how it is implemented in various fields. The author describes what has already been achieved and what the authorities are still working on.
However, the book deliberately omits the last months, the European Parliament and the national parliamentary elections campaigns. The focus was on showing the 3.5 years, which were full of very intensive changes in various fields and which we commonly call "good change".
And where did the initiative to write such a book come from? And what can it teach us about Polish politics?
The idea was born a few years ago. When Viktor Orbán's government was very heavily attacked, a book of this kind, about what was really happening in Hungary, was published by the Hungarian embassy. We have only introduced a certain modification - the point is that the book does not have many authors but just one. This seems to us to be conducive to the coherence of the message.
The "Reforms of the »Good Change « in Poland 2015-2019" is an opportunity to show what happened in our country in recent years, but above all to show a certain philosophy of thinking. We will not find it in a simple message, which is given by the press or in interviews. The media describe specific issues here and now. Rarely does it mention why something happened, what is its legitimacy in past events and in what direction the authorities are going. In this book, however, there is, I hope, a well captured certain philosophy of politics which the Law and Justice party adheres to and which, in current news, information on economic growth and unemployment rates, escapes us somewhere.
The idea of writing the book was therefore taken from a project by the Hungarian embassy, and does the book itself reveal any similarities between the situation in Poland and Hungary?
Of course, and in many places! Thanks to the author Łukasz Kobeszko, the book shows these similarities in the area of pro-family policy and attitude towards the migration of non-Europeans to Europe. This makes it all the more clear to me that this book will be read willingly in Hungary and will perhaps allow Hungarians, through its Polish perspective, to better understand what is happening in its country.
The book has already been published in Hungary, will it be available in Poland?
The book has been translated into Hungarian and is now available in Hungary. However, I hope that soon it will also be published in English. We received a lot of calls about this and there's a lot of interest.
And where can Polish readers find the "Reforms of the »Good Change « in Poland 2015-2019"
The book has been published in printed form only in Hungary, but will be published in parts on our website and on the Wacław Felczak Institute for Polish-Hungarian Cooperation website. At the moment we have already made one of the chapters available, the next one will probably appear next week. The whole book will be published in Hungarian, English and partly in Polish by the end of the year.
The book "Reforms of the »Good Change « in Poland 2015-2019" by Łukasz Kobeszko was published by the Wacław Felczak Polish-Hungarian Cooperation Institute and the Századv Foundation.