Democratic Backsliding in Poland: the Role of the EU

Most of the studies examining democratic backsliding in Eastern and Central Europe analysed the role of the EU asking whether it has prevented or contributed to democratic backsliding (Bozóki and Hegedűs, 2018; Closa, 2019; Halmai, 2019; Kelemen, 2017, 2020). In my article I contribute to this literature by analysing the backsliding dynamics in Poland. I show that the fast reaction of the EU since 2016 through different channels such as different infringement procedures or the activation of Article 7 proceedings has slowed down the backsliding dynamics on different levels. First, the pressure of the European Court of Justice pushed the PiS government to take back some of the controversial judicial reforms. Second, due to the discussion around the activation of Art.7 by the European Commission and a possible “Polexit”, the PiS government, whose voters are the main beneficiaries of the EU Regional Policy, had to ease its EU-sceptical narrative. Even if the Rule of Law (RoL) crises in Poland still goes on, due to these dynamics Poland will probably not backslide towards the Hungarian version of half-authoritarianism.