The call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
ADAM MICHNIKThe call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
ADAM MICHNIKA part of society in our countries would still prefer an authoritarian regime today. These are people with the mentality of Homo sovieticus. But they also exist in France – just think of Le Pen – and even in Finland and Sweden.
ADAM MICHNIKIf you’re powerful, you are much more likely to be blind and deaf to signals from outside.
ADAM MICHNIKI think you can be an enemy of Saddam Hussein even if Donald Rumsfeld is also an enemy of Saddam Hussein.
ADAM MICHNIKThey want a gradual coup. If Orbán stayed in power in Hungary or if Kaczynski were to win an election in our country, it would be dangerous.
ADAM MICHNIKToday we reject the notion of equality between a regime that belongs to the democratic world – even if it is conservative and disagreeable – and a totalitarian dictatorship, whether its colors are black, red, or green.
ADAM MICHNIKSometimes the type of person from the old machine, who is everything but an appealing figure, happens to win an election. But democracy applies to everyone, not just the noble and the clever.
ADAM MICHNIKThe real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.
ADAM MICHNIKThere were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.
ADAM MICHNIKThe main difference between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution was that the former was mostly the work of Communist party members and others who wanted to bring about ‘socialism with a human face.’
ADAM MICHNIKFrance can never accept that it is no longer a dominating power in the world of culture. This is true both of the French right and the French left. They keep thinking that Americans are primitive cowboys or farmers who do not understand anything.
ADAM MICHNIKPolitics and ethics belong to different worlds.
ADAM MICHNIKWe still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.
ADAM MICHNIKKaczynski appointed a judge to the position of deputy justice minister who had once sentenced current President Bronislaw Komorowski to a prison term.
ADAM MICHNIKDemagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
ADAM MICHNIKAlthough there is a strong desire for freedom in the countries of Eastern Europe, there is no democratic tradition, so that the risk of anarchy and chaos continues to exist.
ADAM MICHNIK