Adam Krzemiński on the victory of enlightenment in Poland

Bronisław Komorowski's victory over Jarosław Kaczyński in the presidential elections has revived the old Polish myth of Sarmatism, writes Polish journalist Adam Krzemiński in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "While Kaczyński stands for the dreams of power of the unfairly treated petit bourgeois and the nationalist egoism of the rural population, Komorowski projects the gleam of the old Polish republican myth for which Poland has its own designation - Sarmatism, which comprehends two opposing sides of the Polish national myth. The name derives from a belief often repeated during the Renaissance according to which the Poles - as an aristocratic nation - were descended from the ancient Sarmatians who lived in freedom and brotherly equality on the Danube and even stood up to the Romans. ... The anti-European alliance between the Kaczyński brothers and the hooligans of the 'Self-Defence' party and the 'League of Polish Families' discredited the neo-Sarmatian 'true Poles' to such an extent that in 2007 voters helped the 'Kashubian' [Donald] Tusk to victory. Many young Poles see the EU as a shield against internal despotism and the egoism of the nationals. Now President Bronisław Komorowski is trying with his familiar allusions to resolve the squareness of the circle of Polish cultural history and endow the Liberals with a little 'Sarmatian' charm."

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