Romanian from Poland: “I do not want my girls to be cannon!” How a mother votes in the diaspora already through extremism and political crises

Poland has gone through a political go that put to the test the institutions and democracy: conservative regimes, social crises, protests and, finally, a difficult return to European values ​​after the 2023 elections. Romania now seems on the same gap. With Greek origins, Marika (39 years old), the mother of two girls, is married to a Polish and lives in Warsaw since 2005. She passed, along with her family, through all the political changes of Poland – from liberal democracy to authoritarian control. On May 18, he votes for two presidents: one for the country in which he lives, the other for Romania, where his parents remain. In an uncertain and polarized world, he told us why he no longer votes as a citizen, but also as a mother who wants a stable future for both worlds.

Marika arrived in Poland 20 years ago in studies, met her husband on university campus, married and They became parents for two girls. In 2005, with Lech Kaczytski President and his brother, Jarosław Kaczytski, Premier, Poland was still a liberal democracy, with functional mechanisms and fresh belonging to the EU (Poland had entered the European Community space in 2004). “I had the honor of working for the first Mrs. Kaczytski and I both met them close. They were decent people. Patriots. It wasn't about populism, it was dignity. At that time, their party, law and justice (PIS), it was something other than what came now,” says Marika.

Smolelsk: President's death, from tragedy to political weapon

But after the death of President Lech Kaczytski in the accident in Smolelsk (2010), everything has changed. “A plane accident that killed the President of Poland and 95 other officials created one of the most powerful myths in the history of the country. A significant minority of Poles did not think it was a tragic accident, as detailed in an official report. They saw the collapse from a military aerodrome. Polish and Russian leaders. The Polish Party Law and Justice (PIS) has transformed such theories into political fuel that helped the party win the 2015 elections, “wrote Politico at that time. Marika says that this moment changed everything:” Pis was allied with the Sovereign Polish Party, led by Zbigniew Ziobro. Semens with something I have lived … ”says Marika referring to everything she lived and her extended family, in political regimes, Greece and Poland.

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