Conservative Victory In Poland

Poland's leftist descendants of the old Communist government failed so badly in the weekend's elections that, at only 11%, they are no longer the official opposition party. The big winner was the conservative Law and Justice and free-market Civic Platform parties, which together captured 51 percent of the vote.

Capt. Ed provides the color commentary:

This comes as good news for the US, and bad news for the autocracy of Belarus. The new Polish government wants to implement free-market reforms that will address its crisis in unemployment, which sits at almost 18%, and will lower taxes in order to jump-start its economy. It will also purge old Soviet-era Communists from its government with the idea that people working from market-based principles will allow the government to work that much quicker to solve these problems.

The new regime also will likely strongly support the US on foreign policy. They have declared themselves open to negotiating an extension on the Polish commitment for their troops in Iraq, while the previous government had quietly informed us that they intended to leave in December when their initial agreement ended. They will also keep the pressure on in Belarus, pushing for democratization in what has been called Europe's last dictatorship.

One has to wonder what the EU will make of the new Polish government.

Despite the howls of protest, Rumsfield was right when he talked about Old Europe and its appeasing, social welfare ways, and New Europe, and its philosophical ties to American Conservatives.