Party-level Foreign Policy and the Mechanics of Party Competition: The PiS’s Euroscepticism and Its Dominance over Right-wing Politics in Poland, 2001-2015

Abstract

Following the collapse of the communist regime in Poland, the issue of European Union membership has emerged as one of the top issues in Poland’s foreign policy. The EU membership was regarded as a symbol of the country’s ‘return to Europe’ after an interlude of socialism. This initiated the ‘Europeanization’ process, which requires the harmonization of national laws and norms with those of the EU. During the EU-accession process, the symbolic importance of ‘Europeanization,’ combining with high level of public support for it, obliged the mainstream political parties to support the EU membership process. The strong opposition to the membership, labelled Eurosceptic stance, was largely embraced by the fringe parties. In the post-accession period, however, Eurosceptic policies became no longer confined to fringe parties and extended to mainstream politics. The right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland is an example of such mainstream parties, the Euroscepticism of which became explicit in the post-accession period. For representing the set of conflicting issues between member state and the EU, the party-based Euroscepticism is a useful reference to reveal the variation in foreign policy understanding of political parties. Using the dichotomy of Szczerbiak and Taggart’s soft-Euroscepticism and hard-Euroscepticism, this study suggests that the Euroscepticism of the PiS that has been oscillating between soft and hard Euroscepticism helps the party to keep the other right-wing alternatives with hard-Euroscepticism at bay. From this point of view, the PiS’s distinctive foreign policy in terms of its relations with the EU can be interpreted as a contributory factor behind the party’s domination over right-wing politics particularly since the 2007 parliamentary elections.