VOA常速英语:Poland’s Clash of Cultures Escalates(翻译)

At a nationalist gathering, the memory of communist repression still causes anguish.

The 20th century was not kind to Poland. Once an ethnically diverse, cosmopolitan society, Nazi occupation all but wiped out its Jewish population. Later, Soviet communism repressed debate and assaulted the country’s traditional culture.

Poland is and feels a part of Europe, but a rising nationalist movement takes aim at the EU’s push for refugee quotas and LGBT rights, which some Poles feel are a threat to traditional culture.

That stance is rejected by Pawel Kasprzak, who was a part of the 1980s Solidarity movement that led to the end of communist rule. Now he campaigns against the ruling party’s moves to limit the constitutional court. He sees a link to propaganda by historical enemy, Russia.

“I think it’s extremely dangerous and I think we in the West - I’m proud to say that we belong to the West - we in the West underestimate the threat. The threat, I think, is really serious.”

Younger Poles often have a different view of freedom than their parents.

The Kukiz 15 movement, made up largely of young people, is further to the right than the ruling right-wing party. Its banner: “Stop refugees.”

“We speak with honest language. We do not look at political correctness. We say what we think. We do not dress up simple issues with beautiful words.”

The Runaway capitalism and unemployment in the 1990s also helped shape young people’s thinking. Analysts see a paradox.

“For people who personally experienced the reality of the Second World War, for example, Nazi occupation, the Holocaust, but also the period of dictatorship in Poland, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, they often tend to cherish civic freedoms more than the young people who don’t have that experience.”

For young nationalists, modern western European social liberalism is the enemy.

“I think our culture is a hope for western Europe because western European culture is dying.”

Unlike other parts of Europe, Brexit is not inspiring a drive for Poland to leave the European Union, but it is filling calls for a new, reformed EU that is less intrusive. A clash of culture is playing out in this historical battle ground between East and West.

Luis Ramirez VOA NEWS Warsaw.