Poland is about to have two elections, just a few months after the death of John Paul II: on Sunday 25 September citizens will be called to the ballot box to vote for the renewal of Parliament, and a few days later, on 9 October, will be called to choose their new President. The political climate is very inflamed in the country. The current President, the post-Communist Alexander Kwasniewski, is debarred from presenting himself anew as a candidate. The opinion polls of recent weeks give only 10% to the party currently in government, the Democratic Alliance of the Left, while they assign some 40% to the liberal Civic Platform party, and 23% to the Law and Justice party. The Polish bishops have intervened on the question of electoral reform by issuing a statement in which they invite citizens to take part in the elections. “On what persons we elect to Parliament shall depend the laws that will be promulgated and also the quality and efficacy of the government that the Parliament forms”, write the bishops. “Everything should be done to ensure that the laws serve the dignity of man and the family, and that the representatives we elect be willing and capable of exercising good judgement in fostering the common good”. According to the Polish Bishops’ Conference, moreover, it is essential that the new Parliament “should work for the safeguard of the inalienable right to life from conception to natural death, human rights including the right to work and the fundamental rights of the family guaranteed by a real policy in its favour”. In their statement the bishops speak of the “defence of life and of marriage understood as the lasting bond between a man and a woman. It is therefore important whom we elect”. Lastly they refer to the teachings of John Paul II who repeatedly stressed that “each and every citizen has the right and the duty to participate in political life”.
