Leaders in Poland have singled out the LGBT community as the biggest threat to their goal of “restoring Polish dignity.” With a relentless campaign branding them as a “plague,” the populist government has divided the country, deepening divisions along generational, social and income lines, which threaten to grow, as other minorities become targets.
GroundTruth Fellow Una Hajdari was present at pro-LGBT protests in Warsaw and chronicled how they were immediately followed by a crew of people cleaning the streets to “disinfect” them from their presence. Hajdari also spoke with government officials on both sides to capture how the campaign against LGBT people is waged on the halls of power and how it translates into deeper divisions across the country.
A Q&A with Democracy Undone Fellow Una Hajdari
1. How did the Law and Justice Party come to power in Poland?
2. What role has social media played in the erosion of Polish democracy?
3. What is the relationship like between Poland’s government and free press?
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Follow the entire series
- Overview
- Episode 1: Weaponize Fear – Brazil
- Dispatch: Meet the intellectual founder of Brazil’s far right
- Episode 2: Target Outsiders – Italy
- Dispatch: Europe’s ‘identitarians’ insist they aren’t part of the far right
- Episode 3: Undermine Institutions – Colombia
- Dispatch: The Slow Death of Colombia’s Peace Movement
- Episode 4: Rewrite History – Hungary
- Dispatch: Europe’s failure to protect liberty in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary
- Episode 5: Exploit Religion – India
- Dispatch: Not everyone has a vote in the world’s largest democracy
- Episode 6: Divide and Conquer – Poland
- Dispatch: Poland’s Law and Justice Party mixes victimhood and strength in its messaging
- Episode 7: Erode Truth – United States
- Dispatch: How Trump sells his war on truth
