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What can be said about the elections in Poland of September 25th, beyond the raw figures, the victory of the right wings and the annihilation of the left? Everything seems to abide by the fatal rule of alternate government, since after the fall of communism. Of course, the outgoing government lost credibility with scandals that showed the corruption of the clique in power. But above all it failed to respond to the frustrations of a people, partly prostrated by massive unemployment and by the ruthless laws of free competition. From this point of view, even if Central Europe, with it weaknesses and its late development, is most heavily hit by its own nature, it is not so far from the general situation of a continent in which the majorities alternate all the time. It is the effect of the damages of globalisation and the unpopularity of the reforms required by the adaptation. Poland has always been torn by the contradiction that opposes the Solidarnösc model, developed in the years of the fight for freedom, to the brutality of a development that gives pride of place to financial capitalism. But what can Poland hope for, when even the powerful Germany seems unable to adapt its “Rhenish model”, the one that after the war had managed to achieve a synthesis between economic expansion and social solidarity? We are not surprised of the problems in reconciling the current reality and the hope in a better, fairer society. The task of politics is at the junction between fact and right, it cannot do what cannot be done, even without settling for a government with no plans and no ambitions. Cardinal Ratzinger strongly stressed it: “Politics is the place of reason; and namely, it is not just the place of a technical and scheming reason, but rather a moral reason, because the goal of the State, and therefore the ultimate goal of all politics, is moral, i.e. peace and justice”.(1) The party that won the elections in Poland seems to claim the tradition of social Catholicism and does not intend, therefore, to give in to a merely utilitarian rationality. In this respect, we cannot but wish it all the best, although we are aware of how difficult it can be to implement an economic strategy whose “reformations” should not oppress the weak. Can we hope Catholic Poland will be able to find an original way, in which capitalist expansion will not annihilate Solidarnösc’s plans? Saving their souls, for these people, means keeping their faith alive, but it also means finding the conditions for a cohabitation in which pragmatism will not throw the imperatives of justice into oblivion. Cardinal Ratzinger also highlighted: Faith will not replace reason or political reason. “But it can help show some basic values. Faith, if proactively experienced, gives them such a value that they end up giving light and health to reason itself”. Will the ever-faithful Poland be able to find the dynamic balance of a new solidarity?
