Is Polexit Next? Democracy, Poland, and the EU
In coordination with the International and Global Studies (IGS) Program at Brandeis University
Monday, November 22, 2021
12-1:30pm Eastern Time (US) / 6-7:30pm German time
Zoom Webinar
You can watch a recording of the complete event by clicking the button above.
About the Event
Since the coming to power in 2015 of the so-called Law and Justice party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, basic values of Western-style democracy like the independence of the judiciary and media pluralism came under heavy attack in Poland. Following the example of Hungary under Viktor Orban, successive laws of the Polish government gradually undermined the separation of powers and the independence of the mass media and ultimately provoked a massive conflict with the European Commission, which according to the European treaties, signed by all member states, is the guardian of the European legal order. The webinar, organized by the Centre for German and European Studies at Brandeis University (USA) in cooperation with the Chair of Political Science of the Willy Brandt Centre (WBZ) at the University of Wroclaw (Poland), proposes to examine and discuss the current political situation in Poland and its implications for the country’s membership in the European Union.
Photo: Cracow, Poland - People protest against violation of the constitutional law in Poland in defense of the triad of division of power and independence of the highest court in Poland, July 23, 2017. Credit: Shutterstock/wjarek
About the Speakers
Dr. habil. Sören Brinkmann is a German scholar with a strong expertise in contemporary European and Latin American history. He received his PhD from the FernUniversität in Hagen (2004) and the ‘Habilitation’ degree from the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (2015). In 2020 Dr. Brinkmann joined the Willy Brandt Centre as head of the Chair of Political Science. He did research on contemporary Spain and Brazil and teaches a broad range of subjects reaching from his research topics to present-day Latin America as well as to different issues of the European integration process and its current crises.
Dr. Maciej Olejnik is a Polish scholar with a strong expertise in the Central and East European politics. He received the PhD from the University of Wrocław in 2016. Since 2017 he has been working as an assistant professor at the Chair of Political Science at the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies. His research covers democratization processes, industrial relations and lobbying in Central and Eastern Europe (in particular, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia).