Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Conservative Poland Roils European Union
The New York Times ^ | December 4, 2005 | GRAHAM BOWLEY

Posted on 12/04/2005 10:34:44 AM PST by lizol

Conservative Poland Roils European Union

International Herald Tribune Published: December 4, 2005 By GRAHAM BOWLEY

BRUSSELS - When Polish members of the European Parliament placed an anti-abortion display in a parliamentary corridor in Strasbourg, France, recently, Ana Gomes, a Socialist legislator from Portugal, felt compelled to act, she said.

The display showed children in a concentration camp, linking abortion and Nazi crimes. "We found this deeply offensive," Ms. Gomes said. "We tried to remove it." A loud scuffle ensued as she and the Poles traded insults before the display was bundled away by Parliament guards.

But the matter does not end there. It was the latest skirmish in what some here see as an incipient culture war in the heart of Europe, a clash of values that has intensified since countries from Central and Eastern Europe that are experiencing an increase in the influence of the Roman Catholic Church joined the European Union last year.

In the 732-seat European Parliament, and more widely in the European Union, the clash extends beyond abortion to issues like women's rights and homosexuality.

"New groups have come in from Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Catholicism is certainly becoming a very angry voice against what it sees as a liberal E.U.," said Michael Cashman, 54, a European Parliament member from Britain who has campaigned for gay rights. "On women's rights and gay equality, we are fighting battles that we thought we had won years ago."

With a population of 40 million, Poland is the biggest of the 10 states that joined the European Union last year. It is still uncertain, 19 months later, how Poland, a formerly Communist and overwhelmingly Catholic nation, will fit in with the other members on issues from foreign policy to economic management.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; abotion; catholic; catholicism; catholics; conservatism; conservative; eu; europe; europeanchristians; poland
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-138 next last
To: Lukasz; eleni121

It was Stalin himself, who said once - "Imposing
Communism on Poland was like trying to saddle a cow."


101 posted on 12/05/2005 9:46:00 AM PST by lizol
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: GSlob

Ignorance seems to be your forte.

Making up history as you go along.

LOL.


102 posted on 12/05/2005 10:04:58 AM PST by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: Lukasz
Did the Soviets dictate to Poland how to make oscypek when both were in COMECON? Welcome to the New Improved Socialism! We don't censor your free speech, just your economy!


103 posted on 12/05/2005 10:16:34 AM PST by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]

To: lizol

It was Stalin himself, who said once - "Imposing
Communism on Poland was like trying to saddle a cow."





Nevertheless there it (Communism) was for many years. The saddle was on and it didn't come off until the Reagan era,


104 posted on 12/05/2005 10:30:38 AM PST by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: GSlob

Speaking as a Pollack, third-generation in this country, there is much compatibility between the Polish and the Russian religious communities, especially the White Russians that fled Russia during the Revolution of 1917 to settle here. Where I'm from the community is approximately half Catholic, half Orthodox, and almost all Slav. Some of my best friends are Orthodox Russians, and though we can still get into the heated arguments over various topics, we are united by one thing... our dislike of Protestants...


105 posted on 12/05/2005 10:52:03 AM PST by Namyak (Oderint dum metuant)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: fotw

I drank more than a few bottles, especially in secondary school.


106 posted on 12/05/2005 11:09:46 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: vox_PL

Great photos! Out of great suffering comes great holiness. Thank God Poland is holding onto its Catholic heritage in the face of European decadence.


107 posted on 12/05/2005 11:17:29 AM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: speedy
Amazing to see how Warsaw was rebuilt -- and now there are a lot of chic shops and great restaurants.

That's good to here. I was there in the early '90s and Warsaw was drab, Soviet, concreteblockland.

108 posted on 12/05/2005 11:20:23 AM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Grzegorz 246

OK, but that liquid thing, which you drank can be hardly called "wine" - as far as I can figure out what it was :-)))


109 posted on 12/05/2005 11:59:39 AM PST by lizol
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: Aquinasfan

Ahh yes, the wonders of "Socialist" architecture.

110 posted on 12/05/2005 12:03:45 PM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: eleni121
I have to disagree with your opinion about Poland, Russia and communism. In case of communism Russia was like Germany in case of nazism, Poland was like France and the only reason that the choice was between Vichy Poland and suicide.
111 posted on 12/05/2005 1:10:41 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: lizol

That's why I wrote Polish wine. Wine and Polish wine are two very different things.


112 posted on 12/05/2005 1:13:38 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: Namyak

and though we can still get into the heated arguments over various topics, we are united by one thing... our dislike of Protestants...
_________________________________
LOL I hope not all Protestants....


113 posted on 12/05/2005 2:05:11 PM PST by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: Grzegorz 246

You need to keep in mind that the Russian people suffered untold millions of deaths during the Marxist Leninist era, many millions more than Poland.

With that in mind, you must distinguish between Soviet Communism and the Russian people. Many many communist apparachiks were not even Russian!


114 posted on 12/05/2005 2:09:06 PM PST by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: Sisku Hanne

I've heard some people rave about Wyborowa vodka. It used to be available in any well-stocked liquor stock and a bit more expensive than Smirnov. May want to check it out.


115 posted on 12/05/2005 2:17:01 PM PST by LiveFree99
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Aquinasfan

Yes, I think it has changed considerably since your visit, although you can certainly still find the dreary Soviet-era buildings all around. But now there are designer clothing stores and jewelry stores and some high-end restaurants. It is still relatively poor by Western European standards, but they have clearly made some breakthroughs and there is an emerging business class that is making serious money. In fact, in Gdansk they have an exhibit which consists of a replica of a shortage-riddled Communist-era shop, just so the younger ones will know what it was like in the not very distant past. It was indeed a bleak setting.


116 posted on 12/05/2005 2:54:12 PM PST by speedy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: eleni121

1. Stalin was by no means the first Russian to try to put a saddle on the Polish cow. Long line of tsars preceded him in that effort, with equally ill-fitting results.
2. If the saddle being shaken off is to be attributed to one man, it would be John Paul II.


117 posted on 12/05/2005 3:36:01 PM PST by fotw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: eleni121
"You need to keep in mind that the Russian people suffered untold millions of deaths during the Marxist Leninist era, many millions more than Poland."

So ? Would a fact that someone, who broke your arm also killed his own brother, make you feel better ?
Besides Russia has tradition of killing own people, which is much older than communism.

"With that in mind, you must distinguish between Soviet Communism and the Russian people. Many many communist apparachiks were not even Russian!"

Half of SS was not even German.
118 posted on 12/05/2005 3:43:13 PM PST by Grzegorz 246
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: fotw

Stalin wasn't a Russian.

The victory of Roanld Reagan was the main impetus to the downfill of Communism.

You have two out of two wrong.


119 posted on 12/05/2005 5:08:45 PM PST by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

To: Grzegorz 246

Half of SS was not even German.



That wouldn't suprise me - so what ethnicity were they? Austrians? Lots of Croatians for sure.


120 posted on 12/05/2005 5:13:48 PM PST by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-138 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson