Peadar de Burca: The Division Bell

One of the notable by-products of democracy is division. We cherish the inalienable right to oppose. To be different. To disagree. Having recently spoken to two Polish siblings, raised in the same conditions and environment, but who vehemently disagree on everything from abortion to the economy, it is brutally apparent how deeply Wedge politics is rooted in Poland.

Wedge politics is a political or social issue, divisive in nature which splits a population apart. Wedge issues are nurtured, fed, watered and given lots and lots of sunlight in Poland because for the political classes, the sound of the division bell is sweeter than any starling or thrush, sweeter even than the sound of their own self-entitled voices. Wedge issues are to politicians what seeds are to farmers except the yield arrives in the shape of votes. In one field we have farmer Jaro, sowing his anti-German, anti EU, anti-choice, anti-immigrant, anti-environment wedges. And on the other field we have farmer Donald who has begun to copy his neighbour, fearful of blowing this election because deep down in his Pomeranian heart, he knows it’s closing time in the Last Chance Saloon. Over the last few months I have been conducting a series of interviews all around Poland, asking people who they are prepared to vote for in the coming election. A series of conversations outside of my own middle-class, liberal bubble. What became immediately obvious was the disparity between what people actually want and what they are continuously told they want. Take immigration, for so long now it has been there or thereabouts at the top of the political agenda, a really efficient wedge issue in that it engineered enough space between Poles for a North Sea oil tanker to sail through. Not one person I spoke to raised this issue.

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