Poland has survived worse than this shift to conservatism. Don’t despair | Timothy Garton Ash

Despite the victory of the Law and Justice party, the country still contains powerful forces in favour of liberal, constitutional, European values

““Putinism with a Polish face!”, “Cultural revolution à la Polonaise!”, “Orbanisation on the Vistula!” (Orbanisation refers of course to the model of illiberal democracy practised by the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán.) I listen to my Polish friends’ Cassandra cries after voters handed victory to a conservative Eurosceptic party in Sunday’s general election, and I think “Hang on a minute, old friends, let’s see what comes, and what we can do about it. Poland has been through worse than this, and there will be other elections.” Yet on one thing we must all agree: this matters. Poland is the biggest success story of post-communist Europe and the leading regional power between an overstretched Germany and a rampant Russia. As Spain and Italy struggle with the effects of the eurozone crisis, and Britain has marginalised itself until its referendum on EU membership, the rest of Europe needs Poland more than ever.

Related: Poland lurches to right with election of Law and Justice party

We may look back and say ‘these were years when Poland moved like a crab: backwards, sideways, but a little forwards'

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